Jones: Signing Welsh international Morrell shows just how far Luton have come

Luton boss Nathan Jones believes being able to attract Welsh midfielder Joe Morrell to Kenilworth Road is a real marker of just how far the club has come in recent times.

The Bristol City youngster joined for an undisclosed fee this afternoon, bolstering the number of full internationals in the Hatters squad.

Fellow countryman Tom Lockyer arrived in the summer, along with Rhys Norrington-Davies on loan, the full back getting his senior Welsh debut in midweek, striker James Collins also in the Ireland set-up until recently, while goalkeeper Simon Sluga is a regular in the Croatia squad.

The Town manager, who is now in his second spell in charge, believes it shows the ambition of the recruitment process in place, saying: "It’s a great coup for us, but I think all our signings are realistic, logical and very, very good business.

“Obviously, we wouldn’t have signed Joe Morrell a few years ago.

"We wouldn’t have been able to sign others, but we’ve always been ambitious with our signings.

"We’ve always had a criteria that we look for with all our signings.

“The thing is, here, we’ve kept the nucleus of the side we had in League Two, we’ve just added all the time.

“People want to come to us because of the work.

"They believe that if they come here they get educated and they get better and they’re given an opportunity to play at a wonderful football club and that’s what we do.

“From where we’ve come from, to be able to attract international players, Simon Sluga is exactly the same.

"That’s probably the bigger one because, realistically, Simon wouldn’t have known too much about Championship football, coming to England, but he wouldn’t have come to England unless it was a Championship side.

“So that’s probably the one where you say we can attract internationals from different countries.

“Joe would know all about us, from playing against us.

"He’s played against me a few times and he would’ve known all about Luton, the history and the recent history of how we’ve played.

“I think we’re probably at about 90 per cent success rate with who we’ve signed.

"One or two haven’t quite hit the heights that we thought they would, but at the same time we’ve got forward very quickly.”

On Morrell specifically, Jones admitted he has been a big fan of the player who spent last term at Lincoln, winning the Imps Player of the Season award.

The boss continued: “He ticks a lot of our boxes, he’s hungry to do well and really wants to play first-team football.

“He had a taste at Cheltenham, did well and then had an advanced one at Lincoln where he did really, really well.

“I watched him a lot at Lincoln and then when the opportunity became available, it has been a long process because it has probably been ongoing for about a month or so, but we’re delighted to have him."

When asked where he thought Morrell's best position would be in Town's midfield, Jones said: "He can do all three, he is very versatile.

"He has played as a holder, in terms of that ball-playing defensive midfield player, we’ve brought him in for that role, but we believe he can play in a two as he does for Wales.

"He’s played as an eight for Wales, so we think he’s very versatile and massive scope for development.”

Jones was also quick to praise the board, who have also sanctioned the additions of Jordan Clark and James Bree as well as Lockyer and Norrington-Davies over the summer, despite Covid-19 affecting clubs' finances with no match-day income to speak of.

He added: "The deal was laid out and fitted within our budget and what we could at this point in time.

"We’re always very grateful to the board that they push boundaries for us, they back us in terms of judgement, in terms of when we need to do something, and we don’t ask for ridiculous things.

"We ask for a little bit of help and they’re always there, they’ve done fantastic and I think we’ve had a real productive window.

"Not masses of numbers, but really improved, renewed the ones we needed to and then brought in real competition all throughout, so we’ve had a real good window.”