Rob Edwards has said Luton do not need to sell their best players this summer as Town aim to bounce straight back to the Premier League.
The Hatters have reported back for pre-season training and though they have already seen the expected £5million exit of star midfielder Ross Barkley to Aston Villa, and the more left field move of Gabriel Osho to Auxerre, the manager is expecting most of his big-hitters to remain at the club when the Championship campaign kicks off next month against Burnley.
“We’re not in a position where we have to sell, so the majority of the group will be here,” said Edwards ahead of their summer trip to Slovenia.
“Obviously Ross had an amazing opportunity and we wish him well, thank him for what he did, Sami (Lokonga) and Issa (Kabore), (were) loans, but one or two changes as well, some really big players in our history who have played a massive part have moved on, but we’re in a good place, in a really strong position.”
Edwards has confirmed Allan Campbell is set to move on to “get his career going again” while he and his staff are assessing the likes of Joe Taylor and John McAtee after promising loan spells away from Kenilworth Road last term.
But though there has been some transfer speculation about Elijah Adebayo, Teden Mengi, Alfie Doughty and Tim Krul, no bids have been tabled.
Edwards said: “None of us have got a crystal ball, I think we can put a strong message out there that we don’t need to sell.
“We know the club is in a really strong position, financially. We’re very well managed, so we don’t need to sell anybody at all.
“There’s a number of players that did well last season, but we don’t want to lose anyone and I’ve made that very clear to the group as well.
“And that’s why it pleases me at the moment, that I’m not seeing anyone at the moment who’s saying to me, here I am, I’m looking elsewhere now. I don’t see that at all.
“There’s a real focused group here, who are determined and hungry to try and get back to where we were last season.
“That being said, if an opportunity comes up for someone and it’s right for the football club as well, I can’t sit here in front of you and lie to you and say that’s not going to happen, but it’s certainly not going to be big, big changes with this group, that’s not going to be the case.”
