Luton town in the big time

[Super_horns]

I don’t think it was ever likely to happen, there seems to be this idea that we need to get “premier league experience” in and being linked with these aging players as a result. Not really who I want the club to be signing, much more our profile to sign players like Ogbene & Andersen. We’ve no need for an expensive aging left back with Doughty there, much rather a young and hungry type to challenge him if that’s what we so desire.

As for reception I doubt people would have been too harsh, there have been furious gnashing of teeth of Twitter that would quickly dissipate I imagine

Yes fair point.

You want to build a team for the future.

Whilst Young is a solid pro he probably isn’t going to be motivated long term .

We learnt that mistake with Danny Rose !

 

[Caitlyn]

I guess had Ashley Young signed he would have not got a great reception so maybe wise move not to ?

Nope, but more to the point he hasn't got the correct attitude and we seem to accept less 'end' of career players who just want a pay day.

 

[Caitlyn]

We learnt that mistake with Danny Rose !

Andy many other mercenary players.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

We have been linked with so many players this summer, many of whom don’t sound like our sort of player at all, Josh King the latest.

Seems like the deal for Chong is going to go through, £4m so would break our transfer record. Likely a load of other add ons if we stay up.

Still plenty of work to be done on the squad you feel and getting a bit late now. Need at least a starting GK, RWB, DM. Some areas of depth probably required too albeit not as critically as those 3 areas. Probably at least 6 signings short with players like Rea, Muskwe, Mendes Gomes needing to be moved on too

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Busy day for us, announced Chong, played and won a pre season game at St George’s Park against Peterborough, announced a few more friendlies including 2 in Germany which seems exciting, and also postponed our scheduled first home game against Burnley.

Unsurprising that the home game has been postponed, so much work being done and it seems to be making remarkable progress but always felt a touch too soon. Seems it’s being done for the right reasons, that we cannot absolutely guarantee everything is going to be done rather than through genuine issues having cropped up

 

[oakroader]

loving the new retro home shirt...great memories...

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Really like it, although i do think the 11/12 kit was a better retro version of the same kit. Looks smart though.

Have to say i am tempted this year to get a kit and for the first time since i was a kid get a player (has to be 17 Mpanzu!) on the back of it with the Premier Leage badges. Probably a bit dorky of me but so what, we might never get an opportunity to see it again!

 

[oakroader]

after the ground renovations are completed we will no longer have the smallest possible attendance figure..
we will have more than bournemouth...

 

[Kenneth E End]

Luton have signed Marvelous Nakamba for an undisclosed fee on a three year contract.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Was superb last season and such an important player to how we played. Seems like we will “dance with the one that came with us” and play in a similar way this season to last judging from the interviews Edwards has given so far

Seems Kaboré is going to be linking up with the squad soon so seems that is RWB sorted. Still in need of a keeper!

 

[BelizeHatter]

Coming together. Wasnt sure about Drameh in Champ let alone Prem. Mind you.......theres a lot in that boat ;-)

Like how we are shaping up. Nakamba was a vital acquisition. Expect we will take a seasoned prem keeper on season loan late in the window - since we are lowest on the Prem pecking order. But would love us to go out and get an exciting up and comer too. Been a long long while since we had a really solid keeper. Last spot in the 'have to haves'

Rest will be to fill things out and maybe some older hand experience. Thank God that wont be that wanker Young....... as unlike others i dont think his signing would have been eventually accepted and it would have created an unneeded devisive divide in return for a piece of shit. We can pick other low lying fruit than the Golden Shower variety...... I know. Old school. But proud.

 

[Kenneth E End]

Looks like Luton will take on Ryan Giles for £5M which would provide competition for Alfie Doughty on that left side. I can hear the groans in Middlesbrough from here. He got 11 assists in the Championship and one of the leading players outside of the Premier League last season.

Certainly with the signings we're making we're setting ourselves up for a great 2025 season in the Championship, if we fail to stay up in 2024.

 

[Kenneth E End]

So Luton currently have 49(!) professional players and we're going to need another 3-4 I'd say.

I couldn't help notice that we probably now have the most internationally diverse team in our history, with players from Burkina Faso, Denmark, Curacao, Zimbabwe, Congo DR, Jamaica and Canada to name a few. If it went the wrong(?) way, Luton could have a big chunk of players at AFCON next winter!

Goalkeepers
James Shea, Matt Macey

Defenders
Issa Kabore, Dan Potts, Tom Lockyer, Mads Andersen, Reece Burke, Amari'i Bell, Gabriel Osho, Alfie Doughty

Midfielders
Tatith Chong, Luke Berry, Marvelous Nakamba, Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu, Jordan Clark, Louie Watson, Allan Campbell, Fred Onyedinma, Luke Freeman, Glen Rea

Forwards
Carlton Morris, Cauley Woodrow, Elijah Adebayo, Chiedozie Ogbene, Admiral Muskwe, John McAtee, Carlos Mendes Gomes, Dion Pereira

Possible / Probable Signings
Ryan Giles, Tom Heaton, Thomas Kaminski, Josef Martinez(?)

U21 squad (don't need to be declared in 25-man squad)
Joe Taylor, Aribim Pepple, Jayden Luker, Axel Piesold, Aidan Francis-Clarke, Jameson Horlick, Tyrelle Newton, Josh Allen, Tobias Braney, Zack Nelson, Jacob Pinnington, Millar Matthews-Lewis, Joe Johnson, Oliver Lynch, Ben Tompkins, Jake Bateson, Jake Burger, Archie Heron, Josh Odell-Bature

Out on Loan
Elliot Thorpe, Jack Walton

 

[Caitlyn]

So Luton currently have 49(!) professional players and we're going to need another 3-4 I'd say.

I couldn't help notice that we probably now have the most internationally diverse team in our history, with players from Burkina Faso, Denmark, Curacao, Zimbabwe, Congo DR, Jamaica and Canada to name a few. If it went the wrong(?) way, Luton could have a big chunk of players at AFCON next winter!

Goalkeepers
James Shea, Matt Macey

Defenders
Issa Kabore, Dan Potts, Tom Lockyer, Mads Andersen, Reece Burke, Amari'i Bell, Gabriel Osho, Alfie Doughty

Midfielders
Tatith Chong, Luke Berry, Marvelous Nakamba, Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu, Jordan Clark, Louie Watson, Allan Campbell, Fred Onyedinma, Luke Freeman, Glen Rea

Forwards
Carlton Morris, Cauley Woodrow, Elijah Adebayo, Chiedozie Ogbene, Admiral Muskwe, John McAtee, Carlos Mendes Gomes, Dion Pereira

Possible / Probable Signings
Ryan Giles, Tom Heaton, Thomas Kaminski, Josef Martinez(?)

U21 squad (don't need to be declared in 25-man squad)
Joe Taylor, Aribim Pepple, Jayden Luker, Axel Piesold, Aidan Francis-Clarke, Jameson Horlick, Tyrelle Newton, Josh Allen, Tobias Braney, Zack Nelson, Jacob Pinnington, Millar Matthews-Lewis, Joe Johnson, Oliver Lynch, Ben Tompkins, Jake Bateson, Jake Burger, Archie Heron, Josh Odell-Bature

Out on Loan
Elliot Thorpe, Jack Walton

I think Joe Johnson is now in the first team?

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Goalkeeper situation beginning to look a little desperate now we’ve been knocked back for Palmer from WBA now. Turning sights towards Walton from Ipswich but likewise can’t see that going far given Ipswich aren’t in need to sell themselves.

Looking at either Shea or Macey starting the first game of the season. Pretty much the one position we haven’t really very managed very well for a couple of seasons now.

 

[Kenneth E End]

Goalkeeper situation beginning to look a little desperate now we’ve been knocked back for Palmer from WBA now. Turning sights towards Walton from Ipswich but likewise can’t see that going far given Ipswich aren’t in need to sell themselves.

Looking at either Shea or Macey starting the first game of the season. Pretty much the one position we haven’t really very managed very well for a couple of seasons now.

Walton is on £12K a week at Ipswich. Even if we wanted to beat that, I don’t think he’s as good as that.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Looks like our keeper search may be coming to an end with Kaminski from Blackburn looking like it’s imminent.

Have to say, not much of a clue about him. Was rumoured earlier in the window so perhaps not the 8/9th (possibly hyperbolic) choice keeper it might originally appear to be.

 

[Caitlyn]

Looks like our keeper search may be coming to an end with Kaminski from Blackburn looking like it’s imminent.

Have to say, not much of a clue about him. Was rumoured earlier in the window so perhaps not the 8/9th (possibly hyperbolic) choice keeper it might originally appear to be.

IT has, Kaminski signed yesterday and I just get the impression it was always on the cards.

 

[oakroader]

we're paying circa £2.5 mill for a goalkeeper...giddy days...

 

[BelizeHatter]

We're getting 100M min for being in the Prem........Giddy days

 

[BelizeHatter]

Cant help it, and it might change some by next weekend, but........ im personally a bit apathetic and feel we sold a bit of our soul to the devil and will dance to his tune now. Not ours.

Great for the Club, Town and the overall financial future but is the die cast?

ko times and matchdays all over the shop. Gotta deal with glib colour commentary with parrots paid to make noise, deal with Var where you gotta wait to celebrate, god only knows how extra expensive it becomes for those that can go, getting tonked hard several times and lose a lot more than we win.

There will be good times too. We will surpise some. I think we have a shout but need a reasonable confidence building start to really believe and build. Bought smart and well i think with more to come. Its a decent opening fixture list for us too, i think?

Need a couple of meltdowns from others but just maybe we survive.

 

[Kenneth E End]

Honest views after seeing this Luton team in 3 pre-season matches this week. TLDR version - we're going to struggle a fair bit, but we're proving to be quite resilient with glimpses of real quality.

Perhaps we're going to peak at the right time, but I felt a week ago we were a bit undercooked against Sheffield Wednesday. Both against Wolves and Bochum this week, we've been slow starters but gradually grew into all games. Granted it is pre-season and you shouldn't read too much into it.

No evidence that Luton will play any differently than last season - the standard 3-5-2 being our Plan A, B and C. Although don't be shocked if you get 2 DMs against Brighton. Aggresive, attacking, wing-back minded. This could mean we could come seriously unstuck. Giles and Kabore haven't done much defending this week!

We're going to need to be very good at set pieces - it feels like that is one of the few ways we're scoring at the moment. Seems to be a pattern emerging with this being the source of the goals in the televised Championship games this weekend, for the underdog team.

Giles will be key to this - his delivery is nothing short of exceptional. I'd almost argue that he's worth more than the £5M we paid for him. Wolves inserting a buy-back clause was clever business I think.

In open play, Chong looks a real find. Doing what he was doing first season at Birmingham playing through the middle rather than the wing. He is at the centre of almost all of Luton's attacking play.

Defensively, I think this is going to be real difficult (I know this isn't a shock). We've picked up a few injuries in this area. Fabio, Hwang and Cunha managing to get in behind several times with real pace on Wednesday.

There is no denying that we still have a very tight knit and honest squad. Luton being the beneficiares of the internal "no dickhead" rule. Word has it, that Hannibal who was due to join Luton on loan was sent back before the medical even started due to attitude issues!

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Just going to enjoy it for what it is, I really don’t have any expectations going in about how we are going to do, it’s probably going to be a massive struggle but it’s a bit of a novelty season imo and I don’t think there’s any pressure on us at all. You hear of free hit games sometimes but this feels like a free hit season for us to me!

As long as we don’t compromise who we are and what we have done to get here - as Gary Sweet said at the parade “none of that Billy big bollocks stuff” (and there’s been no evidence of that in the recruitment over the summer)

We are going to take a few pastings probably but that’s the level we are now at. Here for a good time not a long time most likely.

 

[oakroader]

Having had a look at this years premiership squads (so far)
I think Sheffield United,Burnley,Bournemouth and us have similar worries and expectations on avoiding relegation.
I don’t see any potential players of ours,in the event of relegation,being sold back to a premiership team for similar values that Leicester and Southampton have achieved
With no prima donors to upset the dressing room let’s hope rob finds the right chemistry of passion,determination and camaraderie that will make the difference

 

[oakroader]

Get well soon…
Lifelong Hatters fan and former Luton Town chairman Nick Owen has revealed he has undergone surgery for prostate cancer.

 

[Super_horns]

Ross Barkley signed !

He sort of goes against the general make up of the squad a bit ?

Older player with a big ego and reputation

Probably on good money too.

But decent player so if you can keep him fit and motivated who knows ..

 

[oakroader]

Ross Barkley signs on a free…
Used to be good once…
Let’s hope he’s still got the legs…
Would suggest that PRM will have limited league game time with the signings made so far…

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Ross Barkley signed !

He sort of goes against the general make up of the squad a bit ?

Older player with a big ego and reputation

Probably on good money too.

But decent player so if you can keep him fit and motivated who knows ..

We’ve sort of had similar in lower leagues, bit of a Lansbury, Jerome type signing. They perhaps didn’t have questionable attitudes although I must admit not sure if it’s attitude or injuries that has caused his relative career slide, never paid much notice to him as a player tbh as k never thought we’d sign someone like that.

I doubt we would have busted the wage structure for him as just don’t think 2020 would allow that.

 

[Super_horns]

Yes agree .

Will probably be on some pay as you play deal.

Was very good at Everton but struggled for games at Chelsea like so many .

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Reading about it, seems he’s not been the same player since a long term hamstring injury in his last season at Everton. Seemed to have reasonably decent stats at Nice last season for a rotational midfield player. See how it goes, hope he’s here for the right reasons.