Jones ecstatic to welcome LuaLua back to Kenilworth Road

The 28-year-old had initially rejected Town's offer of a new deal at Kenilworth Road, despite having a meeting with Jones ahead of the pre-season friendly at Welwyn Garden City.

Town's chief had admitted being a big fan of the former Brighton and Newcastle winger, left clearly frustrated that an agreement couldn't be reached, but that has all changed now, LuaLua heading out to Portugal with the rest of the squad.

Jones said: “I am delighted, because he was one of the players that when I initially watched the team from January onwards, I really, really liked.

"He has got wonderful ability and sometimes you can have a talented player that doesn’t want to work back, but Kaz is the opposite of that, he is prepared to be a team player.

"He has got that natural talent that is wonderful to see and we need it.

“He is my type of player, because he opens teams up with his individual talent and we need that and we need a mixture of everything.

"But again, like most of our signings so far this window, he ticks that box of having plenty of Championship experience.

"He has got that on his CV so he hasn’t got a mental step to take whether he’s good enough for the Championship.

"He’s another great signing for this club for the season. He fits in with the good characters at the club.”

With LuaLua having been absent from pre-season so far, then Jones will not rush him back and risk the crowd favourite breaking down again.

He added: "He has now obviously missed three-and-a-half weeks of pre-season and we are going to have to be patient with him.

"A lot of times through his career – because of his talent – he has been thrown in, going from nought to 100 with nothing in-between.

"We need to look after Kaz physically for a while – we need to get him a programme that suits where he is now in his career and the age he is at.

“We want to max Kaz out, but because of one or two injuries he’s had, we’ve got to take a little bit longer with him, so we have got to build him up.

"I am asking supporters to be patient with him.

"I want Kaz to be involved, but we need to get a period of him training and increase the minutes of playing in his body, to keep him fit for longer.

"But I am delighted to have him through the door because he is a player that can make things happen – you can’t get enough of him.”