The new front in Luton’s rivalry with Watford … Coldplay?

When Luton reached the Championship playoff final last season, every single one of their fans who made the trip to Wembley travelled with A Head Full of Dreams. Following their victory over Coventry, those supporters prepared to embark on the Adventure of a Lifetime in the Premier League, having seen their team travel Up & Up through the divisions since they’d dropped from the top flight to the Conference at the Speed of Sound. After years of Trouble in Town, the most unlikely of promotions to the promised land had been secured for Luton, a put-upon club and their long-suffering supporters who had longed for Something Just Like This.

Before their first season as a Premier League club, it was widely predicted that Miracles [so we’re ploughing on with it then? – Football Daily Ed] would be required if Rob Edwards’ side were to avoid being relegated before the Christmas Lights were switched on, but with the Clocks due to go forward next week, Luton are still hanging in there. They hover just above the thick black line, despite the occasional Rush of Blood to the Head that has cost them priceless points against fellow strugglers at home. But then, for a plucky underdog punching above its weight in English football’s top tier, this is the reality of Everyday Life. They might stay up, but even if they are consciously uncoupled from the Premier League they’ll soon have a new stadium and be able to enjoy the compensation of those payments afforded to relegated teams known as Parachutes.

OK, cigarette lighters down, mobile phone lights off and enough already with the Coldplay crowbarring. Once described as purveyors of music for the kind of people who don’t like music, Chris Martin and chums aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. Their frontman, as opposed to his Bristol Rovers counterpart of the same name, has promised they will stop writing new material some time next year but until then we’re stuck with them. And to be honest, it’s a small mercy for which Football Daily is extremely grateful as we approach the knockings of the current international break and find our big cupboard o’ content extremely bare, save for a morsel regarding an appeal from some Luton fans to the band whose – checks notes – “soaring choruses, catchy melodies and introspective lyrics” have earned them headline status on the bill of BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend 2024.

Due to take place in Stockwood Park, not much further than a Thomas Kaminsky goal-kick over the Kenilworth Road stand, news of Coldplay’s top billing has prompted some fans to request that Martin change the lyrics of his band’s hit single Yellow to match the orange colour of their club’s home shirt for the evening that’s in it. In what might be construed by some purists as an act of desecration similar to that of changing the colours of a small rectangle on the collar of an England shirt, mad Hatters are suggesting Coldplay flick metaphorical Vs in the direction of nearby rivals Watford. “We’ve seen some of the world’s biggest teams come to Kenilworth Road and have to adapt their style of play,” parped councillor James Taylor. “So why not have the world’s biggest band come to Luton and change the words just for us?” Kev Harper, of the Luton Town Supporters’ Trust agreed that a reimagining of the lyrics would go down well with locals. “The crowd would love it,” he tooted, adding the band should have named the song “Orange in the first place, it’s a superior colour”.

And while all this yellow/orange chat is b@nter out of the very top drawer, with the Big Weekend scheduled for a week after the Premier League season ends, Football Daily can’t help but feel that a cover version of either Status Quo’s Down Down or Survivor by Destiny’s Child might be more appropriate. If nothing else, both are bangers and vastly superior to any of the bland, plodding meat-and-potatoes fare with which Coldplay are more usually associated.

Join Rob Smyth from 7.45pm GMT for hot Euro 2024 playoff MBM coverage of Wales 1-2 Poland (aet), while Simon Burnton will be on deck at the same time for updates from England’s 2-2 international friendly draw with Belgium.

“I just want to play football but it’s hard to move forward. I feel less and less like playing [in Spain] … I will stay because that way the racists can continue to see my face more and more” – an emotional Vinícius Júnior breaks down in tears when asked about the repeated and systematically horrific barrage of racist abuse he has received while playing for Real Madrid in La Liga.

Re: Rob Taylor quoting the Virgin Islands derby being named as the ‘No Taxico’ (yesterday’s Football Daily letters). Despite the Islands’ inhabitants being famously flush with coin and no doubt not lacking in flash wheels of their own, I am very surprised to hear that neither Virgin jurisdiction has a single cab company to call on” – Nick Major.

I remember 1989 in Nottingham being much better than Jon Millard said (yesterday’s letters). Brian Clough’s young bucks (Pearce, Walker, Clough Jr, etc) were playing some lovely stuff and winning trophies. I was 17 and discovering the joys of Rock City, Newcastle Brown Ale and girls. I certainly don’t recall the hanging-around-greengrocers fad” – Andy Taylor.

Send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’ the day is … Nick Major.

It’s only David Squires on the ‘desecration’ of The Flag and everything else that is destroying the sanctity of football.

Lionesses manager Sarina Wiegman believes player-coach relationships are “very inappropriate” and something “we should not accept” in the game. “That’s not healthy,” she said. “I think in our environment, it’s a professional environment, it’s all about performing and it should always be safe.”

Ben Davies is confident Wales won’t get the Paul Bodins should they face a first-ever penalty shootout in their Euro 2024 playoff final against Poland. “We’ve been practising all week,” he panted, while doing a stop-start run-up and giving assorted hacks the eyes. “I don’t know what the lineup is, but we seem to have 11 pretty good ones at the moment.”

Declan Rice hopes to lure Arsenal teammate Ben White out of his England international exile. “He’s a really unique player because he can play three positions,” he trilled. “We’re all going to be on him when we get back.” Perhaps he could show him the “playful update” to the new kit.

France boss Didier Deschamps doesn’t like the cut of William Saliba’s jib as much as that of his other available defenders. “[He] is playing a good season [with Arsenal],” blabbed Deschamps. “But I see him alternating things which I like a bit less. With the French national team, he gets less playing time.”

Reading have entered a period of exclusive negotiation with a prospective buyer as their takeover moves a step closer. “The completion is expected to take up to two months, at which time the purchaser will be announced,” declared the club.

MLS refs will return to work this weekend after settling a new collective bargaining agreement that ends a month-long lockout.

And Andros Townsend is less than impressed with the Premier League over its dishing out of points deductions. “We don’t know what’s going to happen,” fumed the Luton winger.“Everton have got points back, [Nottingham] Forest are appealing and may get points back … it’s all nonsense to be honest.” The World Turned Upside Down, eh? Eh? Oh.

Barcelona and Norway’s Caroline Graham Hansen gets her chat on with Alex Ibaceta in the latest extract from our sister newsletter.

Big Website has been honoured with a number of gongs at the ­SJA British Sports Journalism Awards, with Donald McRae winning both specialist correspondent of the year and ­feature writer of the year, Suzanne Wrack being named women’s sport journalist of the year, and Jonathan Liew again crowned columnist of the year. The less we say about Football Daily the better.

“Sven-Goran Eriksson still has something to teach us all. Let us not supplicate ourselves to petty rage. Let us not squander away time that matters on things that do not.” By Jonathan Liew.

Wales’s colourful Admiral kit in 1976 was so cool even Bob Marley wore it – or so the story goes. Andi Thomas remembers the glorious red, yellow and green.

Midfield general Declan Rice is increasingly a leader for England as he reaches 50 caps, writes David Hytner.

And Antoine Griezmann’s astonishing run of 84 straight France games ended as they lost to Germany. Eric Devin reinforces why Les Bleus need him sharpish.

This match has always favoured the part of Football Daily’s mind that is obsessed with opposition kit colours. It’s June 1998 in Lens and David Beckham is properly about to announce himself on the biggest stage with this pearler of a free-kick for England in their 2-0 win over Colombia at the World Cup.