Luton Town will always find transfer profit on £4m flop hard to believe | OneFootball

Despite flopping during his time at the club, Luton Town somehow made a profit when selling defender Ryan Giles to Hull City.

Despite only suffering relegation from the Premier League last season, Luton Town's time in the top flight will feel like a distant memory for supporters.

Luton are currently battling to avoid relegation to League One after a nightmare first season back in the Championship, and it is difficult to believe it was only two years ago that they were celebrating promotion to the Premier League.

The Hatters completed a remarkable rise that saw them go from the non-league to the top flight within nine years when they beat Coventry City on penalties in the play-off final at Wembley in the 2022-23 season.

Luton's budget was always going to make it tough for them to establish themselves among England's elite, and many of their signings in the summer following promotion arrived on free transfers or for modest fees, including the likes of Thomas Kaminski, Teden Mengi, Ross Barkley, Tahith Chong, Chiedozie Ogbene, Andros Townsend and Jacob Brown.

While their spending was mostly limited during the summer transfer window, the Hatters did break their transfer record when they signed defender Ryan Giles from Wolverhampton Wanderers for a fee of £4 million, but he proved to be a costly mistake.

Luton Town move turned into a disaster for Ryan Giles

It is easy to see why Luton decided to splash the cash on Giles after his strong loan spell at Middlesbrough in the Championship in the 2022-23 season, during which he registered 12 assists in 48 games.

There were some question marks over whether it was too soon for Giles to make the step-up to the Premier League, but many assumed that he would fit in seamlessly at left wing-back in manager Rob Edwards' system, and he was only 23 years of age at the time, so he had plenty of room for further development.

Giles started each of the Hatters' first three games of the season in the Premier League against Brighton & Hove Albion, Chelsea and West Ham United, but they lost all of those matches, conceding nine goals along the way, and it is fair to say the defender looked a little out of his depth in the top flight.

Edwards was clearly not impressed by Giles' performances as he was dropped following the 2-1 home defeat to the Hammers, and his replacement, Alfie Doughty, starred over the following few months, making it tough for him to regain his place in the team.

After over three months out of the starting line-up, Giles was handed two surprise opportunities against Manchester City and Sheffield United in December, but in truth, it seemed unlikely he was going to be able to fully force his way back into Edwards' plans, and it was not long before speculation about a potential January exit began to emerge.

As expected, Giles departed Kenilworth Road when he joined Hull City on loan in the final week of the January transfer window, and the deal included an obligation for the Tigers to buy him in the summer for a reported fee of £5 million, meaning that Luton somehow managed to make a profit on the defender, despite his underwhelming spell at the club.

It was a bold move from Hull to agree to pay such a substantial fee for Giles, but given the way he had performed in the Championship for Middlesbrough the previous season, they were understandably confident that he could replicate that form at the MKM Stadium.

The Tigers were pushing for the play-offs at the time of Giles' arrival, and after an eye-catching transfer window that saw the likes of Fabio Carvalho and Anass Zaroury join the club, many believed he could be the missing piece of the puzzle to help Liam Rosenior's men secure a top six place.

Giles started 11 consecutive games after making the move to Hull, but his time at the club soon began to head in the same direction as his stint at Luton, and after losing his place in early April, he did not start any of the final seven games of the season, with Rosenior picking youngster Matty Jacob ahead of him.

If the Tigers could have escaped their obligation to buy Giles, it is likely they would have done, and shortly after his permanent switch to East Yorkshire was confirmed, he was linked with a move to Middlesbrough, with owner Acun Ilicali even stating that he would not stand in the 25-year-old's way if he wanted to return to the Riverside Stadium.

As it turned out, Giles remained at Hull, and given that new manager Tim Walter was known for playing an attacking brand of football, some wondered whether he would be able to discover a new lease of life under the German.

Giles did start the season as a regular, but it was not long until he again found himself out of favour, with Walter instead opting to deploy right-back Cody Drameh at left-back, and his fortunes did not change after the appointment of Ruben Selles in December.

Following months of speculation, Giles did eventually join Boro on loan in the January transfer window, but the move has certainly not gone as well as he would have hoped so far, and as he struggles for game time with Michael Carrick's side, his career is at something of a standstill.

There is no doubt that Giles has plenty of talent, but he has done little to make Luton regret selling him so soon into his time at Kenilworth Road, and it was a masterstroke from the Hatters to secure £5 million for a player who will now be worth significantly less.