Luton Town should secure these 3 shrewd transfers before August 30th | OneFootball

The Hatters will return to the Championship next season - they should look to recruit and replace in three key areas.

Luton Town were relegated to the Championship after narrowly missing out on survival in what always looked to be a challenging Premier League campaign.

In order to compete to return to the top-flight, the Hatters should be looking to bolster in a few key areas. Already in this transfer window, they have seen core components of last year's team leave Kenilworth Road, including the pending departure of Ross Barkley and the return of key loanees Issa Kaboré (Man City) and Albert Sambi Lokonga (Arsenal) to their parent clubs.

Rob Edwards will have big plans to rebuild and repeat what he achieved in the season before last - achieving play-off Final promotion at Wembley. The Championship is inevitably shaping up to showcase a tough crop of teams once again. Therefore, the right recruitment will be of paramount importance this time around, as Luton enter the campaign as more top-six favourites than relative underdogs.

With that in mind, we take a look at THREE signings here that would be particularly shrewd pick-ups.

Di'Shon Bernard

An injury crisis fundamentally affected Luton's fight for survival towards the back end of last season, with depth and inexperience hindering collecting sustained points in the Premier League. The previous January window was largely unsuccessful when it came to replacing quality that was forced to the sidelines. Rob Edwards will look to learn from recruitment mistakes this summer to ensure he will have cover in each position, particularly across the back line.

Di'Shon Bernard is a player that you'd expect to be hot on the radar of top Championship clubs in contention for promotion, and with his contract at Sheffield Wednesday expiring in June, a decision quickly has to be made about whether the Owls can keep hold of him. When Bernard moved to South Yorkshire last summer, he only signed a one-year deal that did not include the option to extend, although he did enter discussions with the club at the end of 23/24.

Bernard's athletic style paired with his impressive ball-playing skills could suit Luton should they continue to play with their usual three-at-the-back formation. Similarly, when appearing for the Jamaica National Team, which he has now made 16 appearances for, the 23-year-old plays on the right side of the back three.

The former Manchester United man would be linking up with former youth teammate Teden Mengi at Kenilworth Road, which could perhaps be a draw for the youngster, giving Luton the desired pulling power.

Alex Mowatt

Luton will be forced to strengthen in the middle of the park following the losses of Albert Sambi Lokonga, Luke Berry and, when the deal with Aston Villa is confirmed, Ross Barkley.

A proven top-end Championship talent whose contract will also be expiring at the end of June is Alex Mowatt. The 29-year-old has been a mainstay in Carlos Corberan's West Brom side this season, making 43 appearances, assisting five times and scoring twice.

His dependability in central midfield offers not only quality ball retention (90% pass accuracy) but also consistent availability, playing over 3,250 minutes for the Baggies this season.

As well as keeping things ticking over in possession, Mowatt has also shown his ability in defensive areas. His ability to win the ball back is a key area of his game, averaging 1.5 tackles per game and doing so in important areas of the pitch, recovering the ball 4.9 times per game, as per Sofascore.com.

If West Brom delay his contract extension much further, Luton could be a home for Mowatt during the twilight of his prime and perhaps push them, and himself, to play in the Premier League next term.

Tyrhys Dolan

Strengths lie at the top of the pitch for Rob Edwards' side, with plenty of competition for places across the forward line and in attacking midfield. An unsung achievement of last year's Premier League new boys was that they managed to score at least once against all of their league opposition.

In the wide areas, the Hatters have great Championship strength in Chiedozie Ogbene, Tahith Chong, and Andros Townsend, but given injury track records, could look to support them with one additional signing.

A name that has been on the lips of many Hatters fans in the last few weeks is 22-year-old winger Tyrhys Dolan. The dynamic and tricky forward has been with Blackburn Rovers since 2020 and, in his time, has largely impressed at Ewood Park.

Having made over 160 appearances, he has netted 19 goals for Rovers, being a key attacking player for the North West outfit. He looks to be on the move, after to progress in his career would be a shrewd capture for Luton and have been tracking him for a while now, helping both parties to benefit from the deal.