Chiedozie Ogbene has hit back at the disrespect shown to Luton and insisted the Hatters have already proved their survival credentials.
The Ireland star believes they were written off too quickly and will show their fight against Manchester City on Sunday.
Luton fell to a heartbreaking last-gasp 4-3 loss to Arsenal on Tuesday, but have taken points off Liverpool, Nottingham Forest and Wolves this season – beating Everton and Crystal Palace.
The Toffees’ 3-0 win over Newcastle on Thursday dropped the Hatters into the bottom three, but Ogbene has come out swinging against the doubters.
"It didn’t matter who we signed, we could have signed Messi, Neymar and Mbappe, people made up their minds up that Luton were going to get relegated," said the winger.
"It’s disrespectful because before the Premier League started people just judged Luton Town as Luton Town.
"They pre-judged us. When we had a difficult start to the season, we played Brighton, West Ham – West Ham were top when we played them – people said: ‘oh, they’re going get relegated’.
"They weren’t watching the games, they were just looking at results.
"We knew people were going to come around. I hear a lot saying ‘Luton are going to stay up’, but they are the same who said we were going to get relegated before.
"I don’t think people gave us a chance to display what we wanted to show, our philosophy, ourselves. We didn’t sign a £50million player so automatically the whole world thought that Luton were going get relegated.
"We don’t need £50million players, we’re giving players chances and giving them a platform because if Luton went with the most expensive players I might not be here. But that’s what has made us a bit more hungry because we had all these doubters.
"The newly promoted teams are usually the favourites to go down, but that’s where you should stop. Not making statements that we’re not going to beat Derby’s point tally (a Premier League record low of 11), that we’re not going to get any points. That’s quite disrespectful to the players."
The Hatters have another chance to take a scalp against City at Kenilworth Road on Sunday.
Only Declan Rice’s stoppage-time winner denied them a point against Arsenal but, having drawn 1-1 with Liverpool in November, Ogbene believes they can stun the champions.
"Manchester City are the best club in the world so if people write us off, maybe I could understand that one," said the 26-year-old, this season’s fastest Premier League player.
"But never say never. Liverpool came and I’m sure 99.9 per cent of the world thought we were going get beaten comfortably and it didn’t happen.
"It’s all about moments. Anything can happen, if we take our chances it’s a difficult game for them and vice versa, they can get an early goal and it becomes difficult for us.
"But I won’t go into any game saying ‘oh yeah, this is going to be a difficult game for us, we might as well chuck in the towel’ because you never know what’s going to happen and we proved it against Liverpool."
