'Proactive' Hatters chief has plans in place in case any of his Luton stars depart

Luton boss Rob Edwards has always had contingency plans in case any of his Hatters stars were to leave the club ahead of the transfer window closing on Friday evening.

Although the Town chief had been looking to keep his squad together before the deadline passed for another crack at reaching the top flight, winger Chiedozie Ogbene departed on Wednesday, newly-promoted Premier League outfit Ipswich Town shelling out an undisclosed fee expected to be around £8m for his services. There had also been rumours that Teden Mengi was about to exit Kenilworth Road too, with Serie A club Torino a potential destination, although that was played down by Edwards when speaking to the press this afternoon.

With plenty of interest in Luton’s players after they impressed in the top flight, asked if he was ready to act should Town end up selling any of their assets, Edwards said: “Yes of course, there’s always plans in place and we’ve had that for every eventuality and people we thought we could be tested on, so there’s lots of plans in place. We’ve tried to be proactive, as proactive as possible in our recruitment but I’ve said over the last few weeks as well, it’s been a big challenge this year.

"It’s been very strange on getting people in, and again, there’s so many factors and reasons for that, but I think over this last week it’s gone nuts across the board and things have really started picking up. So as I say we’re working very hard on one or two as we speak, but if it doesn’t happen then I’m really content and happy with where we are as well, I think we’ve got a really strong group.”

With Ogbene penning a classy message to Luton supporters after his decision to move to Portman Road, then on the Republic of Ireland international who played 39 times for the Hatters, scoring five goals, Edwards added: “We love him to bits and obviously we wish him well. I think for everyone, the whole thing, him, it was the right thing for the football club as well and we wish him nothing but success.

"We’ve only got positive things to say about Chieo. A lovely human being, a big part of the group, and we know he’ll go and be successful there. He signed for free, so with Ross (Barkley, going to Aston Villa) and him it’s a couple of good bits of business in terms of free transfers there. We’ve done well with that.”