Jones: Club record fee doesn't place any extra pressure on Luton striker Morris after summer move from Barnsley

Luton boss Nathan Jones doesn’t believe there is any extra pressure on striker Carlton Morris despite the club shelling out a club record fee for him in the summer.

The 26-year-old was snapped up from Barnsley following their relegation to League One, after a productive 18-month spell at Oakwell in which he scored 16 goals in 55 matches for the Tykes, including a fine individual effort at Kenilworth Road.

Jones revealed after the 1-1 draw with Sheffield United, that Morris, who had started out at Norwich, then playing for the likes of Hamilton, Shrewsbury and Rotherham, cost Town in excess of the £1.3m they paid for goalkeeper Simon Sluga back in the summer of 2019, when Graeme Jones was at the helm.

Discussing whether there is any kind of burden when arriving for such a fee, Jones said: “No, because we haven’t just gone and spent £80million on him, we’ve been realistic.

“We had a real good season last year and we wanted to build on that.

“We said, ‘this is how we play and this is what we need’.

“There was a big weight on (Elijah) Adebayo’s shoulders last year as a number nine, a target and a catalyst.

“We needed to help that and add more competition to that.

“We have Cameron Jerome that, with the greatest of respect, is at a different stage of his career, so we wanted that.

“So we asked the board and they needed justification for it.

“And, to be fair to them, they went out and did everything they possibly could to get that.

“So, it’s not justifying that (transfer fee), it’s a real round peg in a round hole that we needed to fill.

“He’s scored six goals, but if he doesn’t score another goal then it won’t be money well spent.

“But if continues to score at the rate that he has then he’ll be a wonderful purchase.”

With Jones having been able to splash some cash for the first time since his return as Luton manager this summer, when asked whether Morris’s instant return of six goals in six games, over half of his previous best of 11, scored in the 2020-21 campaign when he played for both MK Dons in League One and Barnsley in the Championship, has given him any extra satisfaction, he added: “We pride ourselves here on our recruitment and structured recruitment.

“We go out and sign people that we feel will do really well for us and how we play.

“We signed Andrew Shinnie (in 2017) and Andrew dropped (divisions), for example.

“He’s a totally different player to Carlton Morris, but we felt we were the best team in the league (League One), we would have more possession than anyone, we would create chances and we needed someone who would open up (defences), and he (Shinnie) did that for us.

“Now, Carlton Morris has been brought in for something different.

“I signed Alan Sheehan, for example, and not to be too long winded, because I needed a centre half that could build from the back, because the ones that were here, with the greatest of respect, couldn’t take us to where we wanted to be. This one could.

"Alan was a leader and that’s why he’s here now because he was part and parcel of us building.

“That’s what Carlton is. At the minute he’s in good form, but he’s scored six goals.

“Seven or nine is his best return (in the Championship), so we want to make sure that he gets past that quickly, and then we’ll see where he will go.”