Gaffer wants 'a group the club and community can be proud of'
Hatters manager Nathan Jones was delighted with how this morning’s open training session at Kenilworth Road was received by the fans – and equally pleased to hear how much the supporters appreciated the efforts made by his players.
The Town players walked out to applause before the session, then went through their drills in front of the spectators before signing autographs on paper, plaster casts, goalkeeper gloves and replica shirts, not to mention smiling for selfies, group photographs and videos.
At the end of the session, as everyone filed out of the stadium, a couple of supporters with young children asked for a message to be passed onto Nathan, to in turn relay to the team, that they were really impressed with the attitude of the players and appreciative of how much time they spent chatting with the fans after finishing their work.
When asked about it in his usual Thursday Press conference that followed the training session, Nathan replied: “That’s important because I want a respectful group.
“I want a group that the club can be proud of and that the community can be proud of as well, because we don’t just recruit players. We recruit characters. We recruit humans and that’s what we’ve got here.
“We’ve got a good group who want to work hard. They are honest and it’s good to see that. And it’s good to see the fans coming in.
“They get an extra bonus because they get to see 90 minutes of football and maybe a bit of the warm-up beforehand usually here, but our real work to prepare for that is done on the training pitch and even though it’s a Thursday and we are recovering, they got to see a little bit, so it’s important.”