Luton chief won't hold Town's talented youngsters back if the right loan deal arises

Luton boss Matt Bloomfield admitted that he won’t hold any of his talented U21s back this season if he believes a loan spell away from Kenilworth Road is the right call to boost their development.

The Hatters have a number of exciting prospects currently coming through who are on the fringes of the first team squad, including players such as Joe Johnson, Josh Phillips, Jayden Luker, Oli Lynch and Christian Chigozie to name a few. Last week saw attacker Taylan Harris complete a six month temporary switch to League Two outfit Tranmere Rovers to gain his first real chance of regular senior football and it’s something that Bloomfield might look to do even more for other members of his Development squad.

Although Town’s relegation from the Championship means that their younger players should get an opportunity in the three Vertu Trophy group stage games that are on the horizon, facing Brighton & Hove Albion U21s, Cambridge United and Barnet, plus the first round ties in the Carabao Cup and FA Cup, Bloomfield won’t keep hold of players who he feels can will benefit from a stint elsewhere.

He said: “It’s a really tough one with some of the younger players as we’ve got the Vertu Trophy so you want to include them, but if there’s the opportunity for them to go and get six months of football between August and January elsewhere, I don’t want to hold them back from that if the opportunity arises. So each case will be individual, but we’ll try to include the young players as much as we possibly can.

"In Slovenia (a number of U21s flew out to feature in the 8-1 win over NK Triglav Kranj), that was probably more than what we ideally wanted, but Lamine’s (Fanne) concussion, Mark’s (McGuinness) illness, a couple of other knocks led us to that situation where we needed to get the players out there. We’re really happy though as young Chigsy (Chigozie) has been brilliant, he’s done really, really well in pre-season and stepped up.

"We’ve recruited Jake Richards who is a really exciting signing for the future and for the present for us as a football club, so I believe in young footballers. If they’re right, they’re old enough for me, but it’s about getting the balance right within the team to make sure we’ve got enough know-how to win games.”