Luton chief exec Gary Sweet admits they tried to be ambitious in the January market.
Writing in his match programme notes, Sweet revealed they came close to pulling off a top transfer coup.
He said: “Usually, the January transfer window is our most hectic time of the season and the window we’ve seen slam shut by Sky felt somewhat like a damp squib.
“Whilst we were more active than ever behind the scenes, it was probably the quietest market in memory with only 10 percent of last year’s expenditure changing hands between clubs. We always see January like a scene from an Indiana Jones film – an obstacle course full of traps and danger that carefully requires navigating to the safety of February. We always enter it feeling that if we can keep our squad intact, we become stronger. Statistically, the fewer changes a club makes in this period, the stronger they perform in the back end of the season, so unsurprisingly, our business this year was very tactical and financially positive.
“We safely exited the bear pit in a better place with minimal day-to-day disruption to our momentum. Like any transfer window, we tried to be creative, trying a few bits of ‘brave’ business which didn’t quite come off, but we often returned to the same question – …but who would he replace in the squad?”
Sweet also detailed: “Earlier in the window we secured the signing of Tom Holmes from Reading, before sending the defender back out on-loan to the Royals. Tom is a player we’ve looked at in each of the last four windows so we’re more than happy that he can be involved in our future.
“And we ended the window by welcoming the highly-rated young attacker Taylan Harris to the club, who will be a terrific longer term prospect for us to monitor. Of course, we were delighted to unveil our newest face, Daiki Hashioka, to you at half-time against Brighton and are excited at the impact – on and off the field – ‘Hashi’ will have with us. If his performances are as excellent as his warmth and friendliness, then we’re in for a treat.
“We also said our goodbyes to Ryan Giles, who left us for Hull. It was difficult for us, and Rob (Edwards) in particular, to stand in the way of Gilo given his desire to play first team football. The performances of Alfie Doughty, the continuous development of Joe Johnson (how good was it to see him get minutes at Goodison?) and the effective squad replacement of Hashi, made the decision an easier one to take.”
