Saturday’s trip to Peterborough United may come too soon for Luton’s two latest signings, Cohen Bramall and Jerry Yates, as they continue to build match fitness following late arrivals at Kenilworth Road.
Both players were signed ahead of the League One opener against AFC Wimbledon, but neither featured in the 1–0 win on Friday, and manager Matt Bloomfield has admitted that while they are progressing, patience will be required before they are fully up to speed.
Left-sided defender Bramall, who joined after the expiration of his short-term deal at Portsmouth last term has not had a pre-season, so still needs time to reach the physical level required to be part of Bloomfield’s wing-back system after the transfer of Alfie Doughty to Millwall.
“Cohen has been without a club all summer, so he’s been training this week. He’s done great, but he’s going to take some time. He’s basically in his first week of pre-season,” the manager said, adding: “Your wingbacks are crucial when you’re three at the back and I think I discussed it after the game on Friday and it’s common sense, right? We had a wingback who’s been bought by another club and can you replace before you lose, when you’re selling and you’re not sure if they’re going to go?
“So all of these things come into football management. It’s not just as easy as black and white and this is what we’ve got. Nige [Lonwijk] done particular particularly well against Tottenham, but he’s a defender playing as a wingback.
“So yeah, there’s lots of things for us to consider. But after the back of that, you lose a wing back, do you change shape after you’ve been working on it six weeks in pre-season? Probably not either. So, it’s putting it together.”
Striker Yates, who signed from Swansea City for a reported seven-figure sum, is slightly further along in his fitness, having been in full-time training, but is also not yet match sharp.
“Jerry’s been with Swansea but hasn’t played any minutes,” Bloomfield added. “He’s further ahead than Cohen, but not where we want him and where we need him to be fully at it.”
Luton struggled for goals in the Championship last term and are still without a number of attacking options, and the addition of Yates is seen as a key piece in reinvigorating his front line, along with summer signing Nakhi Wells, after the long-term injuries to Elijah Adebayo and Jacob Brown, and the departure of Carlton Morris.
“We’ve worked really hard this summer to evolve the group and move it to a place that it needs to get to,” Bloomfield said.
“We lost Carlton over the summer, we’ve lost Eli to his injury. Brownie’s been injured and we’ve lost Thelo [Aasgaard]. We’ve lost a lot of goals in attacking threat out of the group that we had at the end the last season. And I think that needs to also be recognised.
“We’ve lost a lot of attacking threat and goals out of the building in a team we didn’t score enough that we wanted to last year. So it’s going to take a little bit of time. We’re going to have to show a little bit of patience, but I’m not one who’s very patient, I want to get there right now.”
Saturday’s 12:30pm kick-off at London Road promises to be a stern early test for Bloomfield’s side, but there are no fresh injuries since their curtain-raiser last Friday.
Reuell Walters was substituted with an ankle knock against Wimbledon, but has trained all week so should be available again. His replacement was Mark McGuinness, who had a two-week pre-season virus setback, but played in yesterday’s 2-1 under-21 win over Leyton Orient as did Lamine Fanne, who also got minutes to add to the substitute appearances against the Dons on Friday night. Those were his first minutes since a three-week concussion lay-off in the summer schedule.
“Obviously, some have missed parts of pre-season, so it was great to get big Macca on the pitch and Lamine, with their injuries and illnesses and bits and pieces,” Bloomfield said of their League One introductions, adding: “So I feel like we will get fitted, we’ll get sharper, we get stronger as we move on, as we get ones that have missed periods of time in pre-season up to speed better.”
He added: “I do believe we’ll become better as the weeks go on. We’re still an involving unit, lots of new players, the ones that we’ve just spoken about getting themselves up to speed. So yeah, I’m really excited by what we will become and we’re obviously on the journey to get there.”
A host of other first-team squad players also got minutes with the youth side yesterday as West Ham loan signing Gideon Kodua and teenager Jake Richards started alongside Tom Holmes, Marvelous Nakamba, and Lasse Nordås. The latter scoring the winner. Further behind in his fight for fitness is Tahith Chong, though he has now returned to training after sustaining a groin injury early in pre-season.
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