“I have to talk a lot about the club, and I have to talk a lot about me, which is pretty much two of my favourite subjects,” says Nathan Jones when explaining his role in Luton Town’s impressive summer recruitment drive.
The Hatters manager may be only half joking at this point, but there’s no denying that whatever he says to his top targets, they come away praising him.
Seven new signings have joined so far this summer – Allan Campbell, Henri Lansbury, Reece Burke, Amari’i Bell, Cameron Jerome, Fred Onyedinmah and Carlos Mendes-Gomes – as Town look to kick on, as they have every year under the Welshman, but this time with the tough task of trying to finish higher in the Championship than last term’s 12th.
All the same challenges remain in a second tier packed with clubs splashing out on transfer fees and wages that Luton could not countenance. It means there’s necessity but also pride in the club having to do things differently. Included in this is bolstering their recruitment team last term to include head of scouting operations Phil Chapple and, most notably, the head of recruitment analysis Joy Socik, the fan-turned analyst behind the popular Blades Analytics Twitter account.
Jones admitted last season that his input already paid dividends in the capture of Jordan Clark – who bagged a four goals in Town’s 7-0 pre-season win over Hitchin Town – the loan deal for Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and the signing of striker Elijah Adebayo who, after the departure of top goalscorer James Collins, will be tasked with leading the line.
Asked about the impact of stats and analysis on his summer business so far, Jones said: “Pretty much, it’s been 25 per cent impact. It’s 25 per cent stat based, 25 per cent scouts, 25 per cent what we actually know and 25 per cent of what we see when we go out now and watch games.
“There’s lots of things that we do. We brought in Jay Socik, which helps us statistically and flags up things. Then we’ve got Phil Chapple, who I pretty much trust with my life, with his eye. We’ve got Mick (Harford, assistant manager), myself, analysts, our own knowledge, in terms of Chris Cohen, Paul Hart (first team coaches), so there’s masses of things that go into it.
“We identify, we evaluate, we then get a list of targets, one, two and three, then I have to go and meet them and persuade them to come and sign. Once I do that then Gary (Sweet, chief executive) has to go to the board to get the finance to do that. We’ve been very bold this year.
“We haven’t gone after easy targets and everyone we’ve signed has had masses of competition, so it’s been very, very good.
“Fred, we lined up at Christmas time, and managed to get it over the line early, but everyone else, we’ve really had to compete with and it’s been a really tiring process, because it’s been non-stop. Everyone’s been off and having a holiday, but we’ve been in constant work to try to get to a level where we are now.
“Stats is big, but so is the whole process. If the stats are brilliant, but the process and the eye is not very good then we’re nowhere near the level we are. And if we have the eye and good processes, but don’t have the stats, then we won’t quite get the marginal gains that we are getting at the minute.”
Marginal gains is the approach famously taken by Dave Brailsford in reviving British Cycling. It’s a philosophy that aims for small incremental improvements of one per cent each day in any process, so that they add up to a significant improvement when they are all added together.
Luton cannot compete financially, but they can on everything else and in adding to their squad they focus on players with something to prove, or with potential, that they can shape and mould.
Still, money so often talks, and so the club makes a point of emphasising when they’ve come up trumps to tempt a player despite better offers elsewhere. And why not? Something is going very right at Luton Town.
Mendes-Gomes is one case in point, as the winger was highly sought-after, even more so once he fired Morecambe into League One for the first time in their history with a play-off final winner.
The Spaniard spoke glowingly of his conversations with Jones and a presentation that the manager gave to him. I can attest to this impressive approach, as the Welshman gave a similar one to the local media when he first took over at Kenilworth Road in 2016.
Then he told us what he wanted to do, how he wanted to play and how he’d go about it – and it all worked. But for the players, there’s the added focus on their own attributes and how Jones can improve them. Again, it seems to work.
“I never had it in my playing career,” said Jones when asked about these ever influential presentations to players. “When you go and sign for a manager back in the day, I always signed for a manager that knew about me and had a clear way for where he saw me playing. That was it.
“But we take it to a different level here. They’re hand-picked so when I meet them they’re usually the number one choice.
“So I say, ‘this is the work we do, this is where I see you playing, this is why I want you, this is what you’re going to bring, this is how we train, philosophy and everything. If you buy into that, then this is what could happen to you. Why should you join us?’
“Without giving too much away, we’re very thorough, but we know exactly why. If I meet Cameron Jerome, I know exactly why I want Cameron Jerome and it’s for different reasons to why I want Elijah Adebayo, so they’re two different presentations, but with a lot of the same meat around the bones.
“What I do, is that I go, I’m passionate about Luton Town, I’m passionate about what Luton Town do, I’m passionate about what we do within our role at Luton Town and I just try and sell that. It’s a bit like a salesman really.”
That’s when he cracks a half smile in mentioning his two favourite subjects – himself and his club.
“I did it at my other clubs as well and at some of those I had a far bigger budget. The level of detail is still exactly the same, but we have to have edges here. We have to get in early, we have to back our judgement, we have to back our work, our training and then we have to persuade them.
“I’ll be brutally honest with you, a lot of people have come here for less money than they could’ve earned elsewhere and that shows a real hunger. It shows a real desire and a real belief in what we do and that’s the level we’re at. So, it is brilliant, but as we progress year in, year out, it gets more difficult, because to finish higher than last year, we really have to have a good season and really need to recruit well and have a good season.
“But those are the boundaries. Those are what we want to push, so recruitment gets harder every time.
“I identified certain characteristics we needed within the squad. We’ve managed to get those and now it’s about putting the real finishing touches on it.
“Anyone that comes in now will be pretty much a real big player in terms of that, because of where we are and what we’ve already got. We don’t just add numbers now, it’s about can we get even better?
“To be fair to Gary and the board, they have backed us. Now, we haven’t spent millions. We’ve been very shrewd with our business. We’ve had to sell the club (to players), sell the business and what we do (to them), and fortunately enough we’ve gone for the right characters that have bought into that.
“So, we’re in a very good place. I’m really happy where we are and the next six weeks will give us a real gauge of really where we are.”
Now in the third transfer window since his return for a second spell at Luton, this is very much Jones’ team. Even so, seven new signings, with the prospect of more means a challenge to integrate new faces, having waved goodbye to some fantastic servants in the likes of Collins and defender Matty Pearson.
“Its about getting those players to fit into our structure. We’ve had well-oiled machines here,” he said. “It’s replacing that continuity that we’ve had to do.
“We’ve recruited specialists to try to evolve and take the club forward. That might take a little bit of time, but we believe we’re in a good place.
“We’re cautiously excited. Football has a way of biting you, so we’re not going to open ourselves out to euphoria and really be bitten, so everything’s a work in progress. We’re going to work hard, get everyone to gel and to fit into the structure that we have, demand from them, make them fitter, make them better and give them the tools to be the best they can be. Hopefully they can do that and fly for Luton.”
