Luton closing in on new signings as Bloomfield explains what type of player he is after

Luton boss Matt Bloomfield believes the club are getting close to announcing their first new signings of the summer as he pinpointed just what kind of player he is looking to bring in to lead what he hopes will be an instant return to the Championship this season.

With the Hatters suffering an embarrassing second successive relegation last term on goal difference after a 5-3 final day loss to West Bromwich Albion, it means they will begin the 2025-26 campaign in League One, as they are back in the third tier of English football for the first time since the 2017-18 campaign.

Nothing less than a concerted challenge at the top end of the table will be accepted by Town supporters, and to do that, Bloomfield will need to refresh a group of players who have become accustomed to losing in recent years, with a number expected to depart Kenilworth Road ahead of the season getting underway.

The former Wycombe Wanderers chief, who was appointed in January, has shown already that he is up to the task, with Thelo Aasgaard and Milli Alli joining in January, as although they couldn’t keep Town up, both demonstrated some real glimpses of class, with Alli scoring four in his final six outings. Luton have already been linked with Northern Ireland international George Saville who was released by Millwall yesterday, but although not in a position to give any indication on who his targets are, Bloomfield doesn’t think it will be long before some deals are done.

He told the club’s official website: “We have to move forward and we have to move forward in the way we believe is right for our football club. We met on the Monday after West Brom, straight back to work, we wanted to start talking, we wanted to start doing. We have to have a football club that resonates with our supporters, we have to have a team that they can be proud of and we have to be fully focused on doing that.

"The character and what Luton Town stands for, that has to be shown out on the pitch. We’re close to actioning some of that work. We’ve had multiple meetings, multiple meetings with players amongst ourselves, phone calls, we do a lot of work and sometimes you're not able to really show it, but we’re getting very, very close and we’re hopeful that in the near future we can go and announce a couple of bits of where our work has taken us to.”

Since the end of the campaign, Town have revamped their recruitment department, which is now being headed up by Jay Socik and Yousuf Sajjad, with Lincoln City’s Marc Tracey returning as chief scout, club legend Mick Harford stepping into a new dual club ambassadorial and senior scouting role. On what specifics he is looking for in his new additions, Bloomfield was quite clear, adding: “First and foremost it’s character and integrity of the footballer, that’s what we want to recruit and that’s what we’ve been going after.

"There’s loads of other technical and tactical bits that are really important to us as well, but we want players at this football club who want to be here. We want players who are really proud to represent Luton as a football club, we want to work with hungry players who want to go and achieve. There are some players that are going to want to come on the journey with us, so we want to recruit players that are going to join us and be proud to be here

“Everything in life comes down to character and who you are as a person and knitting that together. It doesn’t matter what walk of life you’re in and what profession you’re involved in, it all comes down to that. So for me it’s of absolute paramount that we recruit and work with players that want to be on this journey with us and want to represent our football club. We’re hungry for success, we've been working incredibly hard over the summer and whilst we can’t see all of that work right now, it’s been going on and once pre-season starts we’ll see it out on the grass.”