Luton Town: Twelve out of contract Hatters set to learn their fates

Comments (0)

The futures of at least 12 Luton Town players will be decided from this week, manager John Still has revealed.

Most of the squad will be preparing for the off-season after their unsuccessful bid to reach the League Two play-offs on the last day of the season, which left them with an eighth placed finish.

Alex Wall, Shaun Whalley, Andy Parry, Danny Fitzsimons, Jim Stevenson, Fraser Franks, Ian Rees, Charlie Walker, Charlie Smith, Kynan Isaac, Lee Angol and Brett Longden are all set to discover their fate, with their contracts expiring this summer.

There will also be the usual merry-go-round of the transfer market with Andy Drury, who signed for £100,000 last summer, one high profile name that could be put up for sale after not featuring since March 28. Top scorer Mark Cullen had already attracted attention from other clubs earlier in the year and had looked poised to leave in January.

Still said: “There’ll be players that we won’t re-sign and there’ll be players that we’ll put on the transfer list. It happens at every football club. Everything will be sorted this coming week.”

Still confirmed he has already begun assessing his squad for next term and while Alex Lawless, Luke Guttridge and Luke Wilkinson had all triggered extensions during the season, the manager said: “This week will be a week when players will learn, or come up with decisions that we’ve decided on.

“Elliot Justham has signed a new contract. I don’t believe it’s a problem with Jonathan Smith, I think that will happen.”

Smith, who made his 100^th appearance for the club in Saturday’s 2-0 win over Stevenage, hinted in a tweet after the game that he’d be penning that new deal, posting: “Gutted we didn’t make playoffs but will come back stronger and fitter next season!!!”

Luton also have a number of loan players. Permanent deals are expected for Queens Park Rangers right back Michael Harriman and Norwich City midfielder Cameron McGeehan, while West Ham United are unlikely to let striker Elliot Lee leave but could seek to send him on a season-long loan on a temporary basis.

Still said: “I think Harri has done fantastically. Cam has come in and done well, a bit slow to start but he’s scored three goals and I think he’s done well.

“At 21 they don’t play enough games, so I think a really fit Elliot Lee is a handful and I think he’s shown that. They’ve all played their part.”

Used more sparingly during their time at Kenilworth Road was Aston Villa left back Lewis Kinsella and Tottenham attacker Nathan Oduwa.

Still said: “Lewis [Kinsella] came in when we thought Scott [Griffiths] was going to have an operation.

“Nathan is a young man and I think in the first couple of games he looked like he had it all but I think he found the demands of it – [coming] from development football – difficult.”

But the Luton manager wouldn’t be drawn on potential transfers until some work is done in deciding where his side need strengthening.

“We’ll look at what we think we’ll need and if any of those players are what we think we’ll need, like we did with Cam and Pelly [Ruddock Mpanzu], we’ll make enquires, but it’s a bit too early to say that,” he said.