It has not been an ideal start to life back in the Championship for Luton Town.
Rob Edwards’ side are expected to compete for promotion this season, having come down from the Premier League in 18th place.
However, one point from a possible nine in their opening three games is far from what Hatters supporters would’ve been hoping for, and a 4-1 hammering at home to Burnley on the opening day was a difficult reminder of how competitive it will be back in the second tier of English football.
Newly-promoted Portsmouth holding them to a 0-0 draw a week later showed that up and down the Championship will bring tough tests, with Preston North End further hurting their early season promotion aims with a 1-0 win this past weekend.
Supporters will be feeling quite frustrated, especially given how underwhelming their transfer business has been so far, and with there now only being a few days left in the market, and their strikers have failed to fire in the opening matches, with Carlton Morris and Elijah Adebayo firing blanks.
Luton Town could regret not welcoming big offers for Elijah Adebayo from Jose Mourinho
It was reported earlier in the summer by Turkish outlet Takvim that Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce were interested in signing towering Luton forward Adebayo for around €8-10 million.
A deal failed to materialise, but the ex-Fulham man’s difficult start to the campaign might have the Hatters hierarchy wondering if they should have attempted to cash in instead.
Adebayo has been a great servant for Luton since joining from Walsall in January 2021, playing a key role in their rise to promotion in 2023.
| Elijah Adebayo’s Selected Premier League Stats 2023-24 – As Per Fbref.com | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Stat | Per 90 | ||
| Non-penalty goals | 0.63 | ||
| Non-penalty expected goals (npxG) | 0.37 | ||
| Shots | 1.97 | ||
| Assists | 0.00 | ||
| Expected assists (xAG) | 0.04 | ||
| npxG + xAG | 0.42 | ||
| Shot-creating actions | 1.97 | ||
He even bagged 10 goals in the Premier League last year from just 27 appearances, and stood out as one of Town’s top performers at the highest level.
Zero goals from his opening three league outings is not encouraging though, and Edwards will be hoping he can pick up the pace soon in order to help their promotion ambitions.
However, he is someone that could have been sold for a decent figure, perhaps in the region of £10-15 million with the right negotiations.
Reinvesting that money back into improving the team, giving it a bit of refresh going back into the Championship might have been the smarter move.
And if his form trends in the same way over the next couple of months, then that could prove a costly mistake for the club.
Luton Town & Elijah Adebayo have reasons for encouragement despite slow start
But there are reasons to be optimistic that this is just a blip, and that Adebayo will be back up to goal-scoring form soon.
The 26-year-old is currently taking 3.85 shots per game, and has already generated an xG of 1.7 from only three games.
Luton have also created more xG than they’ve conceded (3.9-2.6), but the bounces just haven’t gone in their favour, lacking ruthlessness in front of goal compared to their opposition.
While it’s far too soon to take these as a strong sample size, it’s a positive sign that he and the team are creating goal-scoring chances but just not quite taking them at the moment.
It has hurt Luton’s early-season form, but we have seen many examples in recent years of a poor start being overcome by a superb run of form in the later months of the campaign.
The Hatters shouldn’t be panicking just yet, but if he continues to under-perform his metrics then both parties will be wondering about an alternative world where Adebayo joins Mourinho’s side this summer.
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