Jones won't be making any 'sentimental' decisions at Luton this summer

Luton boss Nathan Jones won’t be making any ‘sentimental decisions’ when it comes to deciding just who stays and who goes at Kenilworth Road this summer.

After keeping the club in the Championship last term with a superb effort during the nine remaining games when reappointed, Jones gave new deals to a number of the players he signed for the Hatters when he was first in charge.

Glen Rea, Danny Hylton, Elliot Lee, Luke Berry and Kazenga LuaLua all put pen to paper to remain at the club, but looking ahead to this summer, when the likes of James Collins, Sonny Bradley, Matty Pearson, Dan Potts, Martin Cranie and Ryan Tunnicliffe are all out of contract, Jones insists he will make clinical calls over their futures.

He said: “You have to recruit players that are capable, that buy into what you do and they have the humility, the drive and the hunger to do that.

“Then we have to keep evolving because every year we have gone up, the level has gone up, the players have had to step up and those who have, have continued their journey.

“Those who haven’t, we replaced them and shook their hand because they did good work for us and that has been a constant thing and is still a constant thing now.

“We made difficult decisions, we made a couple of sentimental decisions at the end of last year and right decisions because we rewarded pretty much everyone that has come with us.

“We won't be able to make those sentimental decisions this year, we have to make clinical ones but we have had a great group, a great club ethos.

“Everything has kept moving forward. I like to drive that but I have so many good people around me.

“It is not like you have to row a boat on your own. I am rowing, but I have plenty rowing with me.”

After joining the club originally back in January 2016, Jones has seen the Hatters rise from 18th in League Two to looking well set for a top 10 finish in the Championship in just five years.

Although he had a 15-month spell away from the club when heading to Stoke City, a role he was sacked from in under a year, he thinks the Hatters are right where he felt they would be when first taking over.

He continued: “I thing we’re bang on.

"Maybe a year ahead of it because of what we did in League One but in terms of how we looked at things back in 2016 this was always the goal to get promoted in four years.

"The club did it in three, I helped for a lot of that and then Mick (Harford) and the rest of the staff took that on.

"Then we were always going to have to consolidate first year, and then establish, and then go from there.

"In terms of our Championship evolution, that has been pretty much nailed on.

"It is still a wonderful achievement considering where everything was last year and so on but we’re in a very good place.

"Now is time that we make real good clinical decisions and to go again, because we have to progress.

"It takes work, it takes time, it takes players, it takes recruitment, it takes sacrifices, it takes energy, sport science, every single thing that we have at the club to continue to evolve.

"It has never been a one-man thing here, contrary to a lot of opinions.

"The manager drives things on and the manager has to be backed by a CEO and a board, that is what happens here, that is what good staff do.

"When the manager gets above his station, gets low, gets whatever, that they keep him sane and with an equilibrium in terms of work."