Bloomfield confident he has enough defensive cover despite 'late' McGuinness exit

Luton boss Matt Bloomfield is confident he has enough cover in the centre half area despite the late departure of club record signing Mark McGuinness to Sheffield United on transfer deadline day.

The 24-year-old had been a wanted man throughout the summer, but having recovered from a virus that decimated the latter stages of his pre-season, seeing him sent home from the club’s trip to Slovenia, had featured in all of Luton’s opening six League One games, starting the last four, appearing to be back to somewhere near his best with a fine performance during Saturday’s 3-0 victory at Burton Albion.

Going into the final day of the transfer window, it had looked like the Irish international was staying put at Kenilworth Road, but Monday saw Ipswich Town linked with a move for the defender, although it was Bramall Lane where he eventually ended up, with the deal being announced just a few hours before the 7pm deadline, McGuinness leaving to join the Championship strugglers having played 51 games for Town since his move from Cardiff City 12 months ago, scoring three goals.

With Tom Holmes also departing, heading to Rotherham United on loan until the end of the campaign, it saw Luton’s previously healthy centre back ranks looking slightly depleted, with questions marks remaining over Mads Andersen’s fitness once more, another injury keeping the Dane out of the last few matches, Teden Mengi also yet to feature this campaign too, kept out since being the victim of a poor challenge against Southend United in pre-season.

However, knowing that McGuinness was always going to be an attractive proposition to other sides, Bloomfield, who bolstered Town’s attacking ranks rather than look at strengthening Luton’s back-line on deadline day, made sure he already had reinforcements in place just in case, saying: “It was late, but we were also prepared if that makes sense as Mark has had interest throughout the summer from several different clubs in the Championship.

"He was a top performer for us at the end of last season, there’s an obvious reason why he was desired elsewhere, so we’d already kind of pre-empted that a little bit and made some signings of our own, with Nigel (Lonwijk) coming in, with Kal (Naismith) coming back, with Hakeem (Odoffin) coming in, just in case we lost one of the boys that we thought would be fancied elsewhere.

"But then it happened really late, there was an offer put on the table so unfortunately that was the case that Mark was going to move. I can't speak highly enough of Mark in terms of how he’s conducted himself throughout the whole summer. You would never have guessed that he was wanted elsewhere because his work-rate, his integrity to the situation, he goes with our very, very best wishes, as he didn’t provoke anything. It was an offer that came in and inevitably once it comes in, he’s going to move on.

“Whenever you lose someone of Mark’s character and personality and performance level, of course it’s a blow, but again, we kind or pre-empted that we might lose him, so we had to make plans around that. I think Mads Andersen has been in fantastic form earlier in the season, we hope to have him back very, very soon, Kal can play in the middle, we wanted to give Christ (Makosso) a game in the middle tonight (against Barnet) to have a look at him playing in there. It’s a blow as we think so highly of Mark as a whole football club but we tried to make plans around it earlier in the summer.

“We’re pleased with the group we’ve got together. We hope to have Hakeem back sooner rather than later although it’s a little way away. Nigel was brought in to play central defence although he’s had to fill in at wingback on a number of occasions because of the fitness of the boys that we were waiting to get ready there. We’re pleased with the numbers we’ve got there, and as long as we can keep the important guys fit, then we’re fine.”