Nathan Jones reveals “secret” behind Luton Town’s success

Luton Town manager Nathan Jones believes the club’s recruitment has been a key reason behind the club’s meteoric rise to the top end of the Championship table, speaking to BBC Three Counties Radio.

The Hatters missed out on the chance to secure their place in the play-offs last weekend as they were pegged back to a 1-1 draw against Blackpool on Saturday afternoon – but are still firm favourites to be in the top six with just two league games to go and Jones’ men having a six-point cushion.

This is an impressive achievement by the Bedfordshire outfit whose squad cost £3.4m in total, the second-lowest total in the second tier behind recently promoted Blackpool, spending just under £230m less than Fulham who only sit four places above them in the English football pyramid currently.

Managing to recruit well on a tight budget, they have forked out transfer fees on four players this season but have also managed to snap up the likes of Reece Burke, Cameron Jerome and Robert Snodgrass for free.

And with Joe Morrell and Simon Sluga’s sales, their net spend has been kept to a minimum once again during the 2021/22 campaign, a real achievement considering where they are in the table.

Jones believes their recruitment strategy has been key to their success, rising from League Two to the second-tier play-offs in the space of just four years.

He said: “It’s evolution really – we’ve been on a journey. This year we wanted to really challenge – we believed it, we recruited that way.

“Recruitment is everything because no matter how good a manager or coach or CEO you are, if you get that wrong you are done.

“And we’ve got recruitment right – that’s probably been the secret.”

The Verdict:

Many clubs in the past have benefitted from spending