Bloomfield highlights importance of getting pre-season 'right' with the Hatters

Luton boss Matt Bloomfield has highlighted the importance of getting pre-season absolutely ‘right’ to give Town the best chance of putting the disappointment of successive relegations behind them and achieve their goal of League One promotion this term.

The former Wycombe Wanderers chief is spending his first summer at Kenilworth Road having been appointed in January and has already begun reshaping his squad, releasing five players including long serving club legend Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu, Jamaican international Amari’i Bell and Victor Moses, while also bringing in both Kal Naismith and George Saville last week.

With Luton’s first team back to start being put through their paces on Monday, the Hatters chief, who had already spoken last season about how a greater level of fitness is required, was eager to reiterate that is one of the main themes running through his side’s preparation, saying: “We have to get pre-season right, we absolutely have to get pre-season right and we will. It will be hard, we need to be fitter, we need to be stronger, we need to be more robust, we need to be at a level where we can go and attack League One.

“It’s a really difficult league, I’ve spent many years in it and it’s going to be physically tough. We’re going to need a group of players that can all contribute as very rarely do you get any players that play every minute of every single game. We’re going to need a group that knits together properly, contributes and looks like a team, feels like a team and represents our supporters in the manner they feel like they believe they need to be represented and I believe that they need to be represented.

“I’m really excited. It’s going to be really good to get everyone back in the building and start working out on the grass, that’s what’s really, really important with that six weeks we’ve got. First of all we need to consolidate, we need to get the boys out, we need to get them working and ready to perform in the pre-season games. We’ve got the pre-season schedule set, we’re ready to go.”

Luton’s friendly matches kick into action when they head to newly-promoted National League side Boreham Wood on Saturday, July 5, before travelling to League Two side Gillingham on Saturday, July 19, the Gills managed by Gareth Ainsworth, who Bloomfield featured under regularly during his time as a player with Wycombe.

On those two contests, the Town manager continued: “It’s really important that we mix our domestic fixtures with different types of challenges for us. We’re starting off at Boreham Wood, I know Luke (Garrard, manager) very well and it feels like it’s a really good game for us. It’s not far from home so I really hope our supporters can come and see us and see the journey that we’re on during pre-season. That’s a great start for us, a real good pitch, real good team, run by a great guy so I’m really looking forward to that.

"Gillingham, we wanted to try and replicate as many League One games as we could and I know the manager there extremely well. I worked for him for many years, Gaz and his assistant Dobbo (Richard Dobson), so we know that will give us a real stern test. What we wanted to do with pre-season was to have some good games to gear us up for our domestic season, plus another couple of games will be some tougher tests against teams that are going to dominate the ball a bit more that are going to test us defensively in our block phase.

"It’s really important we have those different tests so come the League One season, and I’ve had good experience of League One, there’s lots of different games. We’re going to get physical games, we’re going to have to stand up to the challenge, we’re going to get really good footballing games where we’re going to have to be technically and tactically really smart.

"We’re going to get games in the middle that are going to test us on both ends of the spectrum, so it was important that we were able to put a pre-season schedule together that challenged us in loads of different ways and we really believe we’ve done that with the schedule of games we’ve got as I really feel they’ll give us different tests as well.”

Part of the Hatters’ pre-season preparations will see them fly out to Slovenia once more for a warm weather training camp, a place they have gone to regularly since the days of Nathan Jones being in charge. It’s something Bloomfield hopes and expects to be pivotal in building their camaraderie and spirit for the campaign ahead, adding: “I think it’s really important that we do get some time together as a group to bond.

"There’s going to be new bodies in the building, we want to really bond with the group and when you’re away, you can have meetings all times of the day as you’ve got everyone’s attention. I’ve heard the facilities are incredible out in Slovenia so I’m really looking forward to some time together with the group. We’ve altered it slightly this year as well. We felt it fitted us slightly better to fly home a day early so we get the day’s rest on a Sunday to make sure we get another day’s work on the Monday to build into that following week where we’ve got a couple of games and a really busy schedule.

"We’ve altered that, we’ve gone down from two games to one so we can get more time on the grass training, so we can work the boys really, really hard, leading up to that game out in Slovenia. We’ve tried to make it our own within the incredible facilities and the offer we have to go out to Slovenia. It’s an exciting opportunity for us to have the group together, we’ve tried to make it our own and we’re looking forward to it.”