Edwards hails 'incredible' support from Luton's board in the transfer window as he targets a 'few more' signings

Hatters boss Rob Edwards has hailed the ‘incredible' support received from CEO Gary Sweet and the rest of Luton’s board in his efforts to bolster Town’s squad for the upcoming Premier League season.

With the club going into a summer transfer window like no other, having their coffers boosted by around £100m after winning the Championship play-off final at Wembley, the Hatters haven’t been able to pump it all into signing players, shelling out over £10m on ground improvements to make sure Kenilworth Road can host top flight games this term.

Town are also ring-fencing a large chunk of it to finance their new ground at Power Court, leaving Luton with much less than the other promoted teams, and the rest of their rivals, to spend on new additions.

Despite that, owners 2020 are still making a real fist of it, as ahead of the window, the club had spent £1m just twice in their previous 138-year history, when signing Croatian goalkeeper Simon Sluga in 2019 and striker Carlton Morris last summer.

However, the Hatters have now done that up to four times in the space of a month, with Mads Andersen, Tahith Chong, Ryan Giles and Thomas Kaminski all believed to have cost seven figures.

It might even be five, the fee not revealed for Marvelous Nakamba when joining from Aston Villa as well, as when asked about the backing he had received in his hunt for new players, Edwards said: “Gary and the board have been incredible, but I think there’s a clear strategy as well.

"You can see that with our recruitment, we’re bringing in good people, good players, players that we feel first of all can thrive at this level now and try and keep kicking us on and keep kicking us forward.

"Some of them, Marv, has got Premier League experience, but we feel that they’ve performed so well in the Championship that they’re able to make that step up.”

After revealing that Luke Freeman, Admiral Muskwe, Dion Pereira and Glen Rea are likely to leave the club during the current window to free up spaces in Town’s squad, Edwards reiterated his desire to carry on adding to the six new faces he has already secured.

He added: “There’s a 25-man squad that you can announce.

"We haven’t got to fill that, I want a nice tight group to work with and a group that feel all involved and have got a chance to get those minutes.

"But we need competition throughout the squad in every position, so there’s a couple of areas that I still want to try and do a little bit more work in.

"I won't say anything yet, but we’re working hard behind the scenes to try and do that, like everyone is.

"You’ll hear that up and down the country at the moment, but there will be a few more.”