Luton boss had wanted to keep Kioso but a lack of guarantees over first team opportunities meant defender headed to Rotherham

Luton boss Nathan Jones conceded he had wanted to keep defender Peter Kioso, but a lack of guarantees over first team football saw the right back leave for Rotherham United last week.

The 22-year-old moved to Kenilworth Road in January 2020, but only made 22 appearances for the Hatters in that time, including 15 outings last term.

Loan spells with Bolton, Northampton and MK Dons had quenched Kioso’s thirst for first team football, but once Jones understandably couldn’t give him assurances he would start this term, he joined the Millers on a three year deal for an undisclosed fee.

On the move, Jones said: “I wasn’t necessarily happy to do it, but to clarify everything, to put everything into perspective, we would liked to have kept Pete, because Pete was a valued member of the squad.

"Could I guarantee that Pete was going to play 35, 40 games?

"No, because ahead of him was James Bree, who I think is the best right wing back, attacking full back in the division, and he was last year, and is, for me, he is, so that’s the competition he had ahead of him.

"Then he’s got Reece Burke there (centre half), so he would have been a valued member and I wanted to keep him.

"We offered him a new contract, but I’d said to him I’d be fair that if something came in that was attractive to him and we had a number of clubs, good clubs, that came in.

"Two very, very big League One clubs came in for him, plus Rotherham, and he made it clear that he wanted to go and play regular first team football which is admirable.

"So we tried everything we could, I could have kept him against his will here and said, ‘you’ve got a year left, you see it out,’ but it wouldn’t have been good for everyone, so that’s why we let him go."

Jones also went on to praise the attitude of Kioso during his time with the club, especially after returning from playing regularly at MK Dons to offer cover during Town’s own play-off push.

He added: “Pete has been fantastic for us, we thank him for all his efforts.

"He came back from MK to sacrifice probably playing 22, 23 games and probably being in a League One play-off, to help us to achieve a Championship play-off.

"So we thank him and I had to be fair to him as he’s a great kid, a top pro.

"He’s a Championship player, we always knew that, we always believed that, and he has developed here.

"It’s just when we couldn’t guarantee him regular first team football, we could guarantee him competition that he would compete, he would have liked a bit more guarantees and I can’t do that.

"That’s why he moved on and it was a good deal for the club, it was a good deal for Pete and it means that we’ll be able to strengthen in certain areas.”