Luton centre back Sonny Bradley says he was not happy at the departures of defensive team-mates James Justin and Jack Stacey.
The two full backs were an integral part of Luton’s League One title-winning campaign last term, but their abilities were always going to draw the attention of suitors.
Justin, a Hatters Academy product, was first to leave when Leicester paid a reported £8million for his services – a club record sale for Luton – while Stacey was snapped up by Bournemouth for a reported £4million.
Bradley, who broke his club goalscoring duck with a spectacular volley in Friday’s 3-3 Championship draw with Middlesbrough, said the pre-season departures were hard to take.
“It was never nice. Being brutally honest I weren’t happy when they went. I don’t think anybody associated with Luton was,” he said.
“(They were) two brilliant players, who I loved. I played the majority with JJ last season at left back and I can comfortably say he’s the best I’ve played with at left back.”
Striker James Collins agreed, saying: “When you lose two players of Jack and James’ quality you’re always going to struggle to replace them. Personally, I thought they were the two best full backs outside of the Premier League and now they’ve both gone to the Premier League, so they are tough to replace but I thought that Dan Potts and Martin Cranie did brilliantly (against Middlesbrough).
Potts was the first choice left back at the start of last term before injury struck. That gave Justin, previously favoured more as a right back, a chance and the Lutonian grabbed it with both hands.
Bradley said: “Potts is a good player. Unfortunately for Potts, he was injured most of last season. I’ve played with Pottsy before at Portsmouth, so I know how good he is and think he’s done really well (against Middlesbrough).
“He was unlucky at the end. I think he’s hurt his shoulder but it’s one of them, we have to adapt, we don’t have a choice.”
Town also recruited Brendan Galloway from Everton and 32-year-old Martin Cranie from Sheffield United, both who can play right back, but it was the latter given the nod for the season opener on Friday, scoring on his competitive debut for the club.
Bradley said: “On Matty’s side is Martin Cranie, who’s got a lot of experience. He’s probably not going to push forward as much as Jack Stacey, so it’s slightly different in the way we’ll have to work the formation, but, overall, we’ve had a good few weeks with them now. We’ve worked on a lot and I think you can see, if we eradicate those sloppy goals, we did look quite strong (against Boro).”
