Hatters boss explains his reasons behind not signing Reds keeper Horvath

Luton manager Rob Edwards has explained his reasons behind not signing Nottingham Forest loanee Ethan Horvath on a permanent basis this summer.

The 28-year-old played 51 times for the Hatters last term after joining under former manager Nathan Jones in the summer, keeping 20 clean sheets as Town won promotion to the Premier League via the play-off final at Wembley, when beating Coventry City 6-5 on spotkicks.

There had been reports of an agreement struck between the two clubs that meant Luton could bring the USA in permanently from the Reds for a fee of around £1.5m should they reach the top flight.

However, that didn’t turn out to be the case, with Horvath back at the City Ground where he has started the Reds’ recent pre-season friendlies against Leeds United, PSV Eindhoven and Stade Rennais.

Edwards finally signed one of the two keepers he is after when bringing in Blackburn Rovers’ stopper Thomas Kaminski for an undisclosed fee yesterday and asked about not going ahead with the deal for Horvath, he said: “I love him to bits and thank him for everything he did for the football club, but we just felt and I just felt in the end that I wanted to go in a different direction.

“We’ve got to be forever thankful for what he did and how he helped us to get to where we are.”