Ex-Hatter Lars Elstrup reveals he felt the pressure of £850,000 club record fee when joining Luton

Former Luton forward Lars Elstrup admitted he definitely felt the pressures that came with joining the Hatters for a then club record fee of £850,000 back in 1989.

With the British record having just been broken a month earlier, Spurs selling Chris Waddle to Marseille for £4.25m, eclipsing the £3.2m that Juventus paid Liverpool for Ian Rush two years earlier, Town shelled out almost seven figures for the Dane who had been in fine form for Odense, following a return home from Dutch side Feyenoord.

It was a fee that remained until 2019 when Luton brought in goalkeeper Simon Sluga, with Town breaking it again last summer to sign Carlton Morris from Barnsley.

When Elstrup arrived, Luton were plying their trade in Division One, the top level of English football back then, as speaking recently on his first return to Kenilworth Road in over 30 years, the striker discussed how he almost left after the first season, as detailing how hard it was get to grips with life as the Hatters’ most expensive signing, he told the Luton News: “It is tough, depending on a player's own mentality and mental strength.

“I’ve always been the introvert, insecure, afraid to say something that will be misunderstood and I was that kind of personality.

“Making moves as a player, coming from my hometown Randers to Copenhagen, a big city, was the biggest move, then going to Holland, different culture, different ways of playing.

“I had two difficult years in Holland, then I went back to Denmark and Odense and found joy of football, joy of life and made my way to the national team and then Luton got interested.

“Then of course you come to a new culture, money is also involved, so I said I would like to go abroad again and I picked Luton.

“There was also Nuremberg in Germany, those two clubs were there, I fancied more British football than German football at that time.

“At 850,000, there is a lot of pressure if you cannot handle figures, numbers and contracts.

“It will become a pressure and maybe a bit more when you’re a striker and you’re expected to score goals, you do feel the pressure.

“It was hard for me, for the person I was to handle that and I kind of lived in my own shell, if I had no one to share my thoughts with.”

After receiving a warm welcome from his team-mates, the Dane finally got up and running with a goal in the 1-1 draw at Millwall on his ninth appearance, as he felt the weight lift off his shoulders somewhat afterwards, helped by a first team spirit that the club possessed.

He continued: “That is a release and everybody in the team came and celebrated the goal with me, they were happy on my behalf.

“Iain Dowie impressed me the most, Kingsley Black, Tim Breacker, David Preece, I remember them all.

“I enjoyed going in the dressing room, having talks, going out playing snooker with Mark Pembridge at a pub and a private snooker table upstairs.

"Going out for a drink with Ceri Hughes and Mick Kennedy, that sort of things help a lot when I came as a foreigner over to a new place, a new culture, meeting new people, getting friends, getting acquainted is ever so helpful.”

Elstrup also went on to score twice at Highbury a few months later, as Luton took on Arsenal, continuing: “We lost that game 3-2 and it was great scoring two goals.

“I scored one as a penalty, so that was a great experience also, but as we lost the game, those goals don’t matter.

“If you don’t get the points, or get the win, the goals can’t be used for anything actually in that situation.

“I scored a hat-trick at home against Mansfield in the cup, we won 4-3 away and the return match at Kenilworth, I think it was 7-2, I scored three goals and that was my first goal on the home pitch.”

A change in manager just six months into his spell in England helped Elstrup finally show his best talents at Kenilworth Road, even if that was difficult on Luton’s infamous plastic pitch at the time.

He said: “Ray Harford was manager the first season, he was a good guy, he gave his best for the club and did his job.

"Then the second season it was Jim Ryan mainly and John Faulkner who took over, and that kind of suited me better.

“I found a club that suited me, and playing on artificial turf is much different than playing on pure grass.

“It is a different way of playing, and it is also harder for the body, but you have to adapt which I can, and did, and then you make the most out of it, with the conditions that you’re in.”

Elstrup made 23 appearances in the league that season, 13 from the start, as he was involved in a thrilling relegation fight which saw Tim Breaker and a Kingsley Black double pave the way for a wonderful 3-2 victory over Derby County on the final day.

The Danish international really hit the ground the following campaign, netting 15 goals in 37 top flight appearances, scoring a further three in the cups as well, which once again led to a last game relegation decider with Derby.

This time it was at home though, with Luton legend Mick Harford, now with the Rams, elevating himself even higher in the pecking order of Town heroes by putting through his own net, and Elstrup himself scoring the second.

He said: “We came fourth from the bottom, we just escaped relegation both seasons and it was decided at the last game, both seasons against Derby.

“Our last game, the second season, we won 2-0 and that was when Mick Harford accidentally scored an own goal, putting us 1-0 up.

“I scored the second goal, to make it 2-0, so that was a tremendous game.”

On Harford too, whom Elstrup had spent his first season in Bedfordshire with, until the England man went to the Baseball Ground, the forward added: “Mick Harford is awesome.

“He was a big tall guy, strong, strong in the air and he was himself.

"At the same time, he’s a gentle man and I also looked up to him, the way he handled things because I was the way I was and looking at him, he was teaching me a lot of things.

“From Mick and from any player, I tried to look at how they handled things and tried to copy and put that into my own game.”