Hatters captain praises Town's out of contract players for their commitment

Luton’s out of contract players have been praised by skipper Sonny Bradley for the manner in which they have returned to training.

With the news from Charlton Athletic this week that top scorer Lyle Taylor is one of three members refusing to play in the run-in due to the fear they might get injured and scupper a move away, Hatters’ soon to be free agents have all made themselves available for training.

Players such as Danny Hylton, Luke Berry, Glen Rea and Elliot Lee to name just four have all been put through their paces despite their deals ending in the summer, as Bradley said: “I wouldn’t expect anything less from this group of players if I’m honest.

“Players at this football club are not only signed because of their technical ability or their ability to play football, they’re signed because of their characters as well.

"I know that Gary (Sweet, chief executive) and Paul (Watson, general operations manager) look at this in depth, so it doesn’t surprise me to see every member of the squad back.”

With a whole host of players finding themselves in a difficult situation, being asked to play even though their futures might be elsewhere, Bradley understands it is a difficult situation for those involved.

He continued: “Individually, when it comes to contracts, I’ll be honest, right now, I don’t know how it’s going to work.

“Players’ contracts run out at the end of June, I think we are aware now that we’re going to be playing into July, so there’s going to be some conversations to be had between the EFL, the PFA and the clubs.

“Clubs will possibly have the option over the players, if they want to offer them short-term deals until the season ends, but I’m also well aware that is well within a footballer’s rights to walk away from a contract once it ends.

“So, it’s a really difficult conversation to have between clubs and players and hopefully the EFL can sanction something soon so the clubs can make their plans for the players they want to keep and players that will be moved on.”

Callum McManaman, Marek Stech, Lloyd Jones and Jake Jervis will also be free agents, while Town have options on Donervon Daniels, Jacob Butterfield and Kazenga LuaLua, who signed 12 month contracts in the summer.

Any calls on players’ futures will be left to new manager Nathan Jones though, as CEO Gary Sweet added: “We don’t need to make any decisions on July players until June 23rd.

“It would be foolish for us as a club to make decisions without a manager.

"We have a view on what we’d like to do but ultimately this decision is going to be led by the manager now.

"It’s safe to say clearly that the transfer window isn’t going to be open between now and July so first of all, it’s not easy for players to leave and find another club when they’re not allowed to do that.

"But also it’s not easy for us to go and get another player so the ideal would be to keep the squad together through the end of the season, that’s the ideal position.

"We have a financial consideration on that of course and as players have now taken a deferral, we need to be really prudent with how we’re spending money in July on their behalf."