Hatters keeper Shea impressed with Luton's summer transfer business

Town keeper James Shea has been left hugely impressed with the transfer business done by Luton manager Nathan Jones over the summer.

After navigating the club to Championship survival last term, Jones has been putting a squad together to ensure they aren't battling to stay up on the final day once more.

New contracts were offered to and accepted by Glen Rea, Elliot Lee, Kazenga LuaLua, Luke Berry and Danny Hylton, while Jones has also made four signings so far, bringing in Jordan Clark, Tom Lockyer, James Bree and Rhys Norrington-Davies.

Bree was well known to Shea after spending last season at Kenilworth Road on loan from Aston Villa and was always determined to continue his time as a Hatter according to the stopper.

He said; “He doesn’t count as a new player, but you can see what the manager did with him for the last nine games, he was brilliant.

"He was always speaking to the boys, he was desperate to come back, and he’s going to be a massive right back for us.

“Something just seemed to click with him, he was a different player, he was unbelievable for us, especially for the last nine games.

"He was a massive reason why we actually stayed up.”

With Breen looking to sew up the right back berth, then Sheffield United loanee Norrington-Davies will be given every chance to do the same on left, in the early stages of the season at least, with Dan Potts not fit yet and Brendan Galloway still out.

The Wales U21 international looked every inch the part during his debut in the 3-1 win over Norwich City last weekend as watching him close up, Shea continued: “Rhys was brilliant at the weekend.

"He’s going to be another massive asset for us, you can tell already.

"He’s an attack-minded full back, he is up and down all day long and it's what we need.

"The shape we play, we need our full backs, first of all you need to defend and he’s going to learn that.

"It’s not going to be getting forward all the time, it’s not League One, but my first impression, he looks a real good player and he’ll be a real good player for us this year.”

Another defender through the door was Lockyer, whom was with Charlton Athletic last term and has just returned from Nations League duty with Wales.

Shea said: “Locky is a Welsh international, he’ll be a great player for us.

"You can’t be a bad player if you’re playing for Wales.”

The final new faces thus far is midfielder Clark from Accrington, who also served notice of just what he can do, having a hand in all three goals against the Canaries on Saturday, with a brilliantly unselfish cut back for James Collins to complete his hat-trick.

It's not just his creativity that has caught Shea's eye though, as he said: “I don't think people realise how hard he works, his running stats are unbelievable and the amount he runs.

"He’ll get goals, add assists and Clarky’s going to be a great player for us this season, you can just tell.”

The four new players will strengthen a spine of the team that has been at Kenilworth Road for a significant period, with 10 players including Shea, part of the squad who have gone through League Two and League One.

The keeper insists they have now shown they deserve to be in the Championship, adding: "The team’s looking good, very good and if the gaffer can bring one or two more in, we will be well set.

"It’s a good group as well, the gaffer always says he wants to bring in good people, he doesn’t want to break the dynamics and that’s one of the big factors for us, the group of people we’ve got at the club.

"It’s taken us a long way in the last few years, it’s taken us basically from League Two to the Championship.

"If you can keep those people together, it just shows how far you can come.

“This is where we deserve to be too, we’ve been working for it.

"The reason the gaffer bought everyone in is because he was working towards the Championship.

"He bought these players in for the Championship and now we’re there, we don’t want to just throw it away.

"We feel like we’ve worked hard to get here and we deserve to be here and we want to stay here.”