'Luton don't need to sell anyone' - Edwards

Luton have said that Rob Edwards is a "perfect ambassador" for the club

Luton Town manager Rob Edwards insists they do not 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 their experience of the top flight of English football lasted only one season.

Five players were released and Ross Barkley and Gabriel Osho have moved on to Aston Villa and Auxerre respectively.

"None of us have got a crystal ball, but we can put a strong message out there that we don't need to sell anybody at all," Edwards told BBC Three Counties Radio.

"There's a number of players that did well last season (who might 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 who is saying 'I'm looking elsewhere' - I don't see that at all, there's a real focused group here, determined and hungry to try and get back to where we were last season.

"That being said, if an opportunity comes up for someone and it's right for the football club as well, I can't say it's not going to happen, but there's not going to be big, big changes with this group. That won't be the case."

Despite relegation, former Forest Green and Watford boss Edwards was last month rewarded with a new four-year contract.

And the 41-year-old Welshman is confident he has one of the strongest squads in the Championship at his disposal as they look to repeat their promotion run of two seasons ago - when they beat Coventry on penalties in the play-off final.

Striker Carlton Morris is one of the members of the promotion squad still at Luton

"I feel we're in a better position now than we were going into the Premier League season. We did a lot of recruitment last season, we evolved as a team and we've got a really strong identity now, I know where I want us to be," he said.

"I want us to play exciting, quick football, aggressive football, I want us to score goals and we saw that a lot last year. This year, I want to try and have that and win games. That's going to be our challenge now.

"We know we can do it because we've done it before. That doesn't mean we can just turn up and it's going to be easy and everyone knows that. We've all got our heads screwed on.

"The Championship is tough. There's a lot of good teams, a lot of good coaches but we're in good shape and want to give it our best and do it in a different way perhaps than we did last time."

The only signings so far have been former Brentford midfielder Shandon Baptiste and 19-year-old defender Reuell Walters from Arsenal, who will go straight into the senior squad but Edwards ruled out "loads coming in".

"If we need to, there's money there we can spend," he added. "Not many clubs can say that at the moment.

"We'll always be astute and try do things sensibly but are working on one or two things behind the scenes to strengthen."