Sports

Erling Haaland reassured over Luton facilities as Man City ace told ‘you’ll walk through the other s*** entrance’

ERLING HAALAND and his fellow Premier League superstars have been told they should embrace playing at Luton’s old rickety Kenilworth Road if the club gets promoted on Saturday.

Although the Manchester City ace loves playing away at lavish surroundings such as Old Trafford, the Emirates and Anfield, he will find playing at the 118-year-old 10,356-capacity stadium a completely different experience.

4The main entrance to Kenilworth Road sits under a bridge

4The away entrance to Kenilworth Road runs under nearby houses

Hatters chief executive Gary Sweet told SunSport: “We might have to give our entrances a lick of paint and a new sign but let’s embrace this.

“It annoys me but makes me giggle when you read on social media about how our away fans’ entrance goes through gardens.

“It’s been like that before the Second World War — so why is it raised now just because we might be going into the Premier League?

“Haaland isn’t going to walk through that entrance. He’s going to walk through the other s**t entrance we’ve got. This is what we’ve got guys — so embrace it.

“People poke fun at our ground but it doesn’t bother us. We’ve got thick skins here and it perhaps shows a bit of fear from other teams.

“Our ground will be an asset to the Premier League. This is proper, real life football. This is history and tradition happening right here.

“This isn’t a sterile atmosphere bowl of a stadium where not much goes on.

“This is lively, this is emotion, white knuckle, this is tears and joy, everything in this stadium is a cauldron. If you can’t embrace it, you don’t like football.”

Luton take on Coventry in the Championship play-off final for a £200million windfall to the winner — just NINE years after playing non-league.

And this season the Hatters finished third with the THIRD LOWEST wage bill. Even several clubs in League One have bigger budgets.

And Sweet said: “It shows we can achieve something with what we’ve got and it’s a great story for those people who don’t need lavish surroundings to succeed.

“You can do it with hard work, intelligence, guile, sensible financial management and determined commitment from everyone pulling in the same direction without having a swanky stadium.

“It’s a beautiful stadium by the way — the old girl is beautiful.”

But if the club do beat the Sky Blues at Wembley, they will have to spend around £10million and have just FOURTEEN weeks to bring the ground up to Premier League standards.

4Luton CEO Gary Sweet says anyone who cannot embrace the uniqueness of Kenilworth Road cannot love football

4Erling Haaland could be visiting Kenilworth Road next season

The club must build a new stand where the executive boxes are currently situated — traditionally known as the Bobber Stand. It will include a media centre for journalists and broadcasters.

They must erect a new television gantry as well as a media conference room to seat 70 people as well as at least 50 seats for media and league data providers.

With the Premier League having 100 contracts with broadcasters around the world, the club must have in place 15 international TV commentary positions and a further 15 for radio.

Also the floodlights need to be upgraded.

Sweet said: “We have climbed from non-league to this position in nine years — so I’m sure we can sort out the ground in 14 weeks!”

Meanwhile, Sweet says it Is all systems go to move into a new stadium Power Court — which will initially have a 19,200 capacity with scope to increase that to 23,000.

But the club must wait for the removal of an old electric sub station to be removed from the site before they can get work underway. The stadium is currently at pre-application stage.

Sweet said: “The new stadium and Premier League football could be worth dozens of millions, perhaps more than £100m, to Luton and the locality.”

be worth dozens of millions, perhaps more than £100m, to Luton and the locality.”

Related Posts

After an incredible campaign, Ohtani was nominated for MVP

LOS ANGELES — Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani was named among the nominees for Major League Baseball’s National League Most Valuable Player award on Monday (Tuesday Manila time) after…

แข้ง ทีมชาติไทย รายงานตัวก่อนซ้อมเกมอุ่นเครื่องฟีฟ่า เดย์ พ.ย.นี้

เมื่อวันจันทร์ที่ 11 พฤศจิกายน 2567 ขุนพล “ช้างศึก” ทีมชาติไทย ทยอยเดินทางมารายงานตัว เพื่อเข้าแคมป์เก็บตัวฝึกซ้อมก่อนลงแข่งขันฟุตบอลอุ่นเครื่องรายการ International Exhibition Matches ตามปฏิทินฟีฟ่า เดย์ ในระหว่างวันที่ 14-17 พฤศจิกายนนี้ พบ “ทีมชาติเลบานอน” และ “ทีมชาติลาว” การรายงานตัวในครั้งนี้มีเหล่านักเตะที่มีรายชื่อนำโดย ศฤงคาร พรหมสุภะ (สุโขทัย เอฟซี) , พีรดนย์…

David Campese’s Autumn Nations Series Team of the Week: ‘Freakish’ Springboks star features as several ‘harsh calls’ made

Following a sensational weekend of the Autumn Nations Series, Wallabies great David Campese selects his Team of the Week. “Firstly, I have to say what a thrilling weekend…

Aussie sevens star signs with NRL club in ‘huge blow’ weeks after taking out game’s top award

In a “huge blow” to Australia’s men’s sevens team, reigning player of the year Nathan Lawson is set to leave the code to join the Dragons in the…

‘We like that challenge’ – Pumas flanker Juan Martín González primed for Ireland shot

South Africa, check. New Zealand, check. Australia, check. France, check. Ireland? Argentina arrive to Dublin on Friday evening looking to inflict a second Autumn Nations Series defeat in…

Former All Black critisizes Ireland’s ‘motivation’ after Autumn Nations Series defeat

After one of the most anticipated Test matches on the end-of-year tour, former All Black Jeff Wilson has criticized  Ireland and how they played in Dublin. Wilson’s comments come after…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *