Hatters boss hopes McJannet will turn into a first team player at Luton

Luton boss Nathan Jones hopes that latest addition to the club’s development squad, Ed McJannet, can push himself into first team contention in the future.

The 17-year-old penned his first contract at the club recently, joining the likes of Tiernan Parker, Sam Beckwith, Avan Jones, Corey Panter and Jake Peck in coming through the ranks to earn a place in Town's growing U21s squad at Kenilworth Road.

McJannet, who joined the Hatters academy as an U10, became the youngest player to be offered a development deal, after becoming an important part of the U18 side that has topped the EFL Youth Alliance South-East Division for most of this season, while also playing for the U21 side too.

Jones said: “We’ve kept an eye on him in development games and Under-18 games and he’s done very well, we’re very pleased with him.

“What we are doing at the minute is getting a nice little group in that development, as they had a fantastic win the other day against Stevenage and we watched the game.

"When you start a 23s group, it’s difficult – and Adrian Forbes (head of coaching & player development) has done fantastically well in terms of being able to cope with the group.

"Because sometimes you’re a little bit depleted, sometimes you’re doing three v threes and things like that, but now there is a settled group developing there.

"That’s key because it’s the bridge from academy to first team and it means that we’ll be able to take our time on players.

"We’ll be able to give them a little bit more development time, and hopefully they’ll turn into first team players.

"Ed is one of those who has shown real good promise in his early academy days and we feel is one that will benefit from the contract and the push, so we are very pleased with him."