Luton boss could look to the free agent market to bolster his squad

Town boss Nathan Jones could still bolster his squad for the run-in to the Championship season by scouring the free agent market during the upcoming weeks.

Transfer deadline day came and went on Monday with the Hatters keeping their powder fairly dry, only adding Aston Villa shot-stopper Jed Steer following Croatian international Simon Sluga’s permanent move to Bulgarian side Ludogorets.

Midfielder Glen Rea was allowed to leave for Wigan Athletic for the remainder of the season which, following Dion Pereira and Elliot Lee's loan moves to Bradford and Charlton respectively earlier in the campaign, means with 24 senior players, Luton have space to add one more if they need.

With clubs still allowed to sign free agents, it might be an avenue Jones pursues, as he said: “With the greatest respect we can’t go and compete with other sides, Bournemouth for example.

“We would have loved to have added Todd Cantwell to our ranks, but we’re not in that realm at this point in time to be able to afford that.

“So if we can’t get someone like that, then we didn’t want to take a number.

"But what we might be able to do now with the window shutting, there might be someone out of contract where everyone else has taken their players and we think, ‘okay, we might be able to get that quality.’

“If it’s the right character, the right athlete that can add a little bit more quality then that scope is there to do, so let’s see.”

Ahead of the window closing, Jones had stated he wanted the Hatters to come out of January stronger than when they went into it and when asked if that was the case, added: “It’s difficult, we’ve still got scope, but we couldn’t improve the squad significantly, so we didn’t do any business.

“We just made sure we were fair to everyone in letting Glen go to get games, because he’s deserved that and then there’s opportunity with out of contract players to add one to the squad, because we’ve kept a place.

"But if we couldn’t improve the squad significantly, then we didn’t just add a number which is what we don’t do here.

"So I wouldn’t say we’ve come out of it categorically stronger, but what we have done is we’ve got a real tight group now that will all play, that will all contribute and sometimes instead of just adding more potions, you just have to keep going with people and that’s what we're doing.

"We’re in a real good position and once we get everyone back, the numbers we have anyway are strong and I’m leaving three or four in the stands.

"To add to that is tough anyway and people like Elliot Thorpe will get opportunities to step up, so that’s what we're looking for.”