Fan Talk with Ollie Kay: Write Luton off at your peril

Ollie Kay of the We Are Luton Town Podcast cannot wait for the Hatters' first Premier League campaign and believes they have more than a chance of defying the odds and surviving.

We are Premier League

Has it sunk in yet that Luton are a Premier League club? Not completely but I'd say it's slowly getting there.

For a while after that glorious day at Wembley, I still don’t think it had fully hit home what the club had achieved.

Fixture release day was a big wake-up call in that regard, seeing that we will be going up against the likes of Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal on a regular basis.

Then it was the quality of the players we started to bring in.

I know a lot of Premier League fans have questioned our summer business so far but I'm finding it very exciting.

A lot of people have already written us off this season — but I 100% believe we will stay up.

What a journey

It's not the first time Luton have been in the top flight. Being born in 1988, however, those days were before me but I've certainly had a rollercoaster time as a fan.

I've seen six promotions and six relegations, which is absolutely nuts.

I don't think there are any other football fans that could say they've experienced that many ups and downs.

Bad owners, financial crises, points deductions — we've seen it all but that just makes May's triumph at Wembley all the sweeter.

It was undoubtedly the most significant moment in our history.

Stick to the formula

Our recruitment policy throughout our journey up the pyramid to get us to this point has always been sensible — signing players who are nowhere near their ceiling that we can develop.

The emergence of 20-goal striker Carlton Morris last season is testament of our strategy working wonders.

Chiedozie Ogbene from Rotherham looks a Premier League player in the making, it's just he's arrived two or three years more quickly down the line with us.

Mads Andersen seems to have everything in his locker to become a top defender, despite being plucked from League One, while Marvelous Nakamba was brilliant for us last season.

Even those three are a step up on who we were able to target in previous years and it's wonderful to see.

A tough old trip

Our form at Kenilworth Road is undeniably going to be key. We saw it with Nottingham Forest — eight of their nine wins last season came at the City Ground.

Our games against Watford during the regular season and Sunderland in the play-offs were the noisiest I've ever known the ground in the 20 years I've been going. The stadium was shaking!

We also gave Chelsea a run for their money in the FA Cup the season before, so we know we can make it difficult for these top sides.

We'll have another thousand or so seats added due to the work being done on the Bobbers Stand 'beach huts', so opposition players can rest assured they'll be getting stick from all four sides when they visit us.

Ollie Kay was speaking to Cian Cheesbrough