There are just under two weeks left of the transfer window and this week has seen Luton captain Sonny Bradley linked with a move to Preston North End, while the Hatters are reportedly set to bid for Swindon’s Scott Twine. Here’s everything boss Nathan Jones said today about the latest transfer speculation.
Is there anything in the Sonny Bradley speculation or is he a player Luton are looking to tie down to a future at the club?
Jones said: “Yes, we’ve opened talks with all those, opened discussions, some discussions are at different levels, so it’s all in hand.
“I haven’t seen any speculation, but when players are out of contract you’re going to get speculation, but we have a certain way of doing things here that players buy into and players have bought into, we’re hoping that those that we want to tie down, we get tied down.”
How big a player is Bradley for Luton?
Jones said: “I think he’s got a manager that believes in him, that has believed in him, whenever he plays well we don’t let him get too high and when he has a tough game or a game where he’s not at his best, we make sure that we speak and bring him through those times.
“He’s got a lot of development left in him, he’s not at his maximum at the minute, there’s still a lot of things that he can do better, but we’re delighted he’s ours.
“He’s been a good captain for us, he’s pretty similar to Matty Pearson when we brought him in, he’s done what we thought.
“We’d like him to add a few more goals as he was very prolific in one season for Plymouth, and we’d like him to return to that.”
Is there anything in rumours that the club has put a bid in for Scott Twine?
Jones said: “Of course we know of him because we have our eye on every league. We probably could tell you what certain players have for breakfast but in terms of an offer, no it is not.
“He is someone else’s player so we have to be very careful about speaking about other players anyway.
“He is a young player we know a lot of him. We have a lot of young players here and that is why we brought Kal Naismith in to supplement a lot of young players we have.
“Kal is only 28, but that is what we needed. Whether it’s needed at this point, a young player for example is yet to be decided.”
Are you looking at more experienced players in this window?
Jones said: “No. If something improves us or something different then that is when we will open up discussions, that is when decisions have to be made.
“We’re not looking to get anymore experience, we have good experience in the squad, that is when we open up discussions and they have to be made. We felt that we lost Rhys and we didn’t want to take another loan. We enquired and tried to get Kal in the summer, but we felt this was the right time to do it.
“We felt we needed a bit of experience for the second half of the season, we needed a bit of Championship experience. He’s 28 and in theory, he’s in his prime and the best years of his life. so we don’t necessarily need experience because we have experience but we felt in that signing, rather than take another young loan that was a relative gamble.”
