‘It won’t be a crazy deadline day,’ says Jones, but loan deals still to be done

Luton boss Nathan Jones does not expect a “crazy” transfer deadline day, but that loan moves for some of his squad are still on the cards. 

The window shuts in a week, but the club did their business early, signing Carlton Morris, Cauley Woodrow, Alfie Doughty, Matt Macey, Ethan Horvath, Luke Freeman, Louie Watson, Aribim Pepple and John McAtee. 

The Hatters have yet to replace Kal Naismith, who moved on a free to Bristol City, but the re-emergence of club stalwart Dan Potts as a centre back, means there’s no need to push for another defensive signing, unless a player becomes available. 

But Jones isn’t expecting to be on the phone doing deals in the coming days and asked about how he expects to spend transfer deadline day, the manager said: “It’s a week away. I have no idea what my life holds in the next three to four hours. A week in football is massive, so who knows what might happen? 

“We will be primed if something comes available but it won’t be a crazy deadline day for us because most of our business, as is the case, is usually done by now. 

“I think we’ve had one crazy window, but not really crazy, when we signed Elijah Adebayo and Kal Naismith really late. 

“But, apart from that, we do our business and if one or two things become available then we’ll attempt to do them, but we’re in a good place. 

“We’re very settled and we have the tools that we have now in place. I don’t envisage it being crazy and if I can spend any of the next few days with my feet up, enjoying a glass of wine, I’ll be delighted, it doesn’t have to be deadline day, it could be anything.”

Jones has confirmed it isn’t a case of having to move any players out in order to sign others, should the opportunity arise. 

“I’ve got a fantastic board here and if it’s logical to do stuff then they’ll do it. We do our recruitment early. Gary (Sweet – chief executive) and the board have never really said to me ‘it’s got to be one in, one out’. 

“They’ve backed me if I’ve asked for something and then they’ve tried to arrange something. They’ve been fantastic for me, like that. 

“We don’t overspend in any way. We don’t do anything illogical, we don’t gamble and we don’t put the club at risk, finances at risk of FFP at risk, or anything like that. 

“We haven’t brought another player in because we haven’t quite found the right one yet that we’re convinced is better than what we have. 

“We don’t need bodies. All we would do is sign someone better or different to what we have. At the minute, that hasn’t been the case. 

“We won’t knee-jerk, we don’t need bodies because once we get everyone back, we’re a really strong outfit.”

But because of that squad strength, Jones has maintained throughout the season so far, that some of his men will need to go out on loan to get game time, with talk previously of assessing the needs of players like Dion Pereira, Elliot Thorpe, Louie Watson and Admiral Muskwe.

He said: “It’s about choosing the ones that need to go out to get minutes, games and progression. We’ve got a few out at the minute already, obviously Pepple has gone out already and is playing for Grimsby,  McAtee as well. 

“Josh Neufville is out too, so there’s a couple of young ones that will go out. Everyone else, we’re really happy with. 

“It’s just about furthering the development of a few in the squad and keeping them moving forward. That’s the only way we’ll benefit because we can’t progress 27 or 28 players, it’s impossible to do that.
“So, one or two might need to get that exposure and once we find suitable places for them, we’ll do that, because there’s some talented boys here that need games.”