Town boss Jones has his transfer targets in mind as he looks to begin work immediately on improving Luton's squad for another crack at the play-offs
Luton boss Nathan Jones revealed he will be back to work this morning in a bid to strengthen his Hatters squad and give themselves the best chance possible of topping their sixth place finish next term.
The Welshman suffered play-off heartache for the second time in his Town career last night, Jordan Rhodes’ late goal sending Huddersfield Town to Wembley in the final later this month, as they triumphed 2-1 over two legs.
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Hide AdIt was a similar kind of feeling for Jones back in 2017, although this one wasn’t quite as galling as conceding with the last kick to Blackpool at Kenilworth Road in the League Two play-off semi-finals, to go out 6-5 on aggregate.
After that game, Jones had a busy summer bringing in a host of players that meant Town didn’t need to go through the play-offs the following year, and he will now look to do the same in the coming weeks, as he targets beating the impressive sixth spot achieved.
Speaking after the game, he said: “Tomorrow I’ll be back in work and ready to recruit so that we are having another crack at this in a year’s time.
“I remember meeting Gary Sweet (chief executive) the day after we lost to Blackpool.
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Hide Ad"We started the next day and went out and signed Luke Berry, Andrew Shinnie, James Collins and we’ll do that again, that’s what we want to do.
“We’ll get stronger, we’re not resting on our laurels.
"We’ve got all those eight (of his injured players) to come back into the squad, to be fit and ready to start again.
“We want another crack at this.
“We want to add more quality to the squad, more competitiveness, everything.
"Certain things we can do better, we want to evolve, have a bit more quality but tonight we were outstanding.
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Hide Ad“We have to push boundaries and now we’ve created expectations.
"It might not be possible, but we want to recruit.
"Our squad will be better, come June the 23rd, than it is now.
"I’m convinced of that. We go again.”
Jones is expected to announce his retained list soon, while he is well aware of the type of players he is after, and can realistically look to bring in, now Luton know what division they are in next term too.
He added: “We still know our targets. I still have meetings and go about meet people. We know who we want to sign.
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Hide Ad“If we’d have won tonight and then gone to Wembley, it would’ve opened up a new avenue of signings.
"But all we do is shut that avenue down because we know we can’t afford people down that avenue.
“That’s all it does. We go and recruit how we do.”