Luton Town manager Rob Edwards insists there is no need to sell any players following last season’s relegation from the Premier League.
Edwards guided the Hatters to promotion from the Championship in 2022-23, but his experience in English football’s top flight lasted just one season.
Five players were released and Ross Barkley and Gabriel Osho were transferred to Aston Villa and Auxerre respectively.
“None of us have a crystal ball, but we can send a strong message that we don’t need to sell anyone out,” Edwards told BBC Three Counties Radio.
“There are a number of players who did well last season (who may attract interest) but we don’t want to lose anyone and I’ve made that very clear to the group.
“I’m not seeing anyone at the moment saying ‘I’m looking for another place’ – I don’t see anything like that, there’s a really focused group here, determined and hungry to try and get back to where we were. season.
“Having said that, if an opportunity arises for someone and it’s right for the football club as well, I can’t say it won’t happen, but there won’t be any big, big changes to this group. not be the case.”
Despite relegation, Edwards, the former Forest Green and Watford manager, was last month rewarded with a new four-year contract.
And the 41-year-old Welshman is confident he has one of the strongest teams in the Championship at his disposal as they bid to repeat their promotion run from two seasons ago – when beat Coventry on penalties in the play-off final.
“I feel like we’re in a better position now than we were in the Premier League season. We did a lot of recruiting last season, we evolved as a team and we have a very strong identity now, I know where I am. want us to be,” he said.
“I want us to play exciting, fast, aggressive football, I want us to score goals and we saw that a lot last year. This year, I want to try to do that and win games. .
“We know we can do this because we’ve done it before. That doesn’t mean we can just show up and it will be easy and everyone knows that.
“The Championship is difficult. There are a lot of good teams, a lot of good coaches, but we are in good shape and we want to do our best and maybe in a different way than we did last time.”
The only signings so far have been former Brentford midfielder Shandon Batista It is Arsenal defender Reuell Walters, 19, who will go straight to the senior squad, but Edwards ruled out “a heavy entry”.
“If we need to, there is money we can spend,” he added. “Not many clubs can say that at the moment.
“We will always be shrewd and try to do things sensibly, but we are working on one or two things behind the scenes to strengthen ourselves.”
