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“John is probably the example that I want to try and follow. He came down, imposed himself on this league and showed people what he could do. So I want to make a name for myself and make an impact at Luton. If I do as well as I can, hopefully I can follow John's footsteps and try to play in the Premier League. That's the pinnacle, it's the top league in the world.”
So said Allan Campbell in 2021, a few months into life at new club Luton Town following his transfer from Motherwell for an undisclosed fee. The 'John' he spoke of was the Scotland midfielder, John McGinn, who has gone on to emerge as one of the top players in his position in the Premier League with Aston Villa.
The soon-to-be 25-year-old Campbell has now emulated McGinn's feat of securing promotion to English football's top flight but, whereas, his compatriot played a key role in Villa's victories over West Bromwich Albion and Derby County in 2019 (he was named man of the match in the play-off final), Campbell played just eight minutes across three matches as Luton returned to the top division for the first time since 1992.
Indeed, the playing time he has accrued over the past six weeks has been limited to just two 90-minute appearances in Luton's nine games during that period.
Now that he has reached the top, Campbell might well be wondering what the future holds. Clubs that reach English football's Promised Land tend to employ one of two strategies to ensure they remain there: embark on a lavish spending spree or trust that the esprit de corps generated from the previous season is enough to carry the side through for another season with a view to squeaking over the line by doing just enough to see off relegation thus ensuring the promise of another sizeable chunk of revenue to build on in their second season. The former is a strategy that has worked for Nottingham Forest in the campaign just ended while the latter has ensured that both Fulham and Bournemouth have remained in the top flight without breaking the bank.
The club will be required to spend significant money on their Kenilworth Road stadium just to make it Premier League compliant with reports emerging over the weekend that they will demolish and rebuild the Bobbers Stand at the ground. The new facilities will include a media centre and TV and data analysis studios with costs estimated to come in at approximately £10m so you'd imagine they won't exactly be chucking money around in the transfer market despite their new-found wealth which comes in at around £90m.
Much will also depend on which tactical approach their manager Rob Edwards will take in the top flight. If their play-off final victory over Coventry City is anything to go by it will be the industrial approach, which is by no means a bad thing for an artisan such as Campbell.
Edwards, too, is fond of his Scottish players. As manager of Forest Green Rovers – with whom he earned promotion this time last year – he had three in the shape of Nicky Cadden, Regan Hendry and Jack Aitchison. Which should be good news for Campbell, of course. There's a long way before he can expect to find himself lining up in the same Scotland midfield as McGinn on a regular basis, but he can draw comfort, too, from the fact that, at age 25, the Villa captain was only just securing promotion from the Championship himself.
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