Lars elstrup discusses his time with the hatters
It's 1989, Luton Town have wrapped up a season, which has seen them fail to retain the League Cup after a valiant cup run, losing to Brian Cloughs' Nottingham Forest in the final. The club have finished 16th in the league during the 1988/89 season, dropping from a 9th place finish during the 1987/88 season. After nearly a decade in the top flight of English football, hindsight makes it apparent that the League Cup win during the 1987/88 season was the peak in the 20th Century of Luton Town Football Club, it wasn't known at the time, but a long protracted drop into Non League Football would follow just 20 years later. At the time, there was hope from fans that the drop in form and league finishes was temporary and that the Town would continue to fight tooth and nail to not only continue retaining their top flight status, but resume a push up the table.
The 1989/90 season is about to start, and Luton Town have broken their transfer record to sign a Danish international from Odense. Enter Lars Dahl Elstrup.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Lars Elstrup, and we recorded an hour of our chat, which you can watch below, courtesy of The We Are Luton Town Podcast, however, after I pressed 'end recording', we continued to chat for another 2 hours and it's great to see that the Dane, who has battled so many demons, many of which were incredibly public, following his retirement has found his smile once again.
When Lars signed for Luton Town from Odense, icons such as Ricky Hill and Brian Stein had left Luton Town after making over 900 appearances between them, with the remaining Littlewoods Cup heroes of 88, being eyed up by other clubs in the First Division. The significance of the investment into Lars, who's best football had been played in the Danish First Division with Randers Freja, Brondby and Odense with a poor 2 seasons at Feyenoord sandwiched between, was a gamble for the Hatters, with an instant impact needed.
Lars openly discussed that he simply wasn't good enough during his first season at Luton Town, although he bagged 9 goals in total, with the majority of these goals came in the League Cup, specifically in the second round against Mansfield Town where he scored 5 goals over the two legs. These were Lars' first goals for the club, with a brace coming on the 19th September and then a hattrick following on the 3rd October. He opened his league account against Millwall at the Den towards the end of October, following this up with a goal in a heavy 6-3 loss to Southampton and then bagging a brace against Arsenal in a 3-2 defeat at Highbury. Was that brace against Arsenal at taste of what Hatters could expect from Lars? The remainder of his season was punctuated by injury, missing the entirety of January and then struggling to regain fitness, playing just twice before returning to the squad in April, when upon his return he couldn't hit the back of the net, but Luton Town stayed up, on goal difference.
Lars always struggled with anxiety and fear of the unknown, having played all his best football in his native Denmark, upon his return back home to Odense after his failed time in the Netherlands with Feyenoord, and the club experiencing financial difficulties, they had to sell Lars to keep afloat. As Lars, who made no secret of his main motivation being making as much money as possible, was fascinated by a move to England to play in the top flight, which he had been a keen fan of growing up in Denmark. However, once he joined Luton, he was beset once again with his anxiety, claiming that on the day he joined, he decided that he would only stay for 2 years and had already planned out his exit route to Odense in order to get back to his safe surroundings. He did grow to enjoy the company of his colleagues at Kenilworth Road, in particular Mick Harford, who Lars said was a gentle and very kind soul. But once Mick Harford was sold to Derby a few months after he had arrived at the club, it certainly didn't help Lars' mental state, seeing one of his preferred team mates who had welcomed him into the fold, leave the club.
While he still had camaraderie from his team mates, preferring the team hierarchy at Luton as opposed to what he had seen at Feyenoord, it just still wasn't clicking for him, although Lars cherished the support from fans who always got behind him. Although after his first season, the club wanted to move him on to French Ligue Un club Brest, he didn't like the set up and attitude from the hierarchy there and while back in Odense on holiday, Lars decided to really make a go of it at Luton, training harder than ever, even before he had gotten back to Luton. Lars arrived back fired up and during pre season training up in Scotland he felt a wave of new energy and confidence, happy to try new things. He spoke about one particular finish in training where he was marked by Darron McDonough and received a ball crossed in from the left wing and improvised a finish that left McDonough absolutely stunned (you need to watch the video for the description of this - as McDonough used quite fruity language).
Although Lars had already notched 7 goals in the first half of the season, including a hattrick against Norwich and a brace against Southampton, he identified the Nottingham Forest match on the 1st December 1990 as the turning point for survival. He describes the goals he scored as two beautiful goals, and with Luton having only won twice away during the 1990/91 season up to that point. Playing against the big guys; Nigel Clough, Des Walker and Stuart Pearce, Luton made it work and Lars describes it as a breakthrough with the team being level and competing with the best players. Lars certainly showed it with two goals of the highest quality, first beating Des Walker in a foot race to catch a Steve Williams through ball, followed by a faked shot that left Stuart Pearce scrambling, before finding the top corner with a sublime finish.
In total Lars scored 15 league goals during the 1990/91 season, a very good account considering Luton Town were battling relegation. This time, Luton Town didn't need goal difference to stay up, there was clear daylight between Luton Town in 18th place and Sunderland in 19th, however, as he had decided on his first day at the club, Lars knew it was time to move on, he had enough to money to live comfortably, he just wanted to get back home to Denmark. A lucrative offer came in from Howard Wilkinson at Leeds, who would go onto win the First Division title the following season, but Lars turned them down. Lars mentioned that Bill Tomlins did offer him a contract, although at 20% of what Lars had been earning the previous season. These were times before Jean-Marc Bosman and free agents having power over clubs, so Lars' hands were tied, although he mentioned a negotiation tactic whereby he told the club that he would leave the club and sign amateur terms with Odense. Lars smiled as he told me this, he had no intention of signing amateur terms, but he did broker a deal that saw Luton Town receive money, albeit a fraction of what they had spent to bring him to the club just two years earlier.
With Lars having left Luton and gone back to Odense, he retired promptly upon the conclusion of his contract, and claimed he felt a relief wash over him temporarily, and he sought ways to find his inner peace. He tried joining a buddhist wild goose sect, changing his name to Darando, this lasted a few years, but Lars yo-yo'd in and out of depressive episodes, so bad he couldn't leave his bed for long stretches. Although he has been in fine spirits since January 2022 and has made frequent trips to India and Africa, embracing these philosophies and subscribing to Hinduism to find his peace.
He even made an impromptu trip to Luton Town to do a tour of the stadium, where upon introducing himself to reception, Gary Sweet immediately left his meeting, marching down to reception to give Lars a big hug. They had never met, but Gary told Lars that he idolised him growing up as an 18 year old on the terraces at Kenilworth Road.
Lars' story was written by Danish Journalists back in 2012, and was transcribed into English in 2024, even receiving a new chapter that speaks fondly of his time at Luton Town.
