Luton Town have managed to enjoy a solid campaign in Nathan Jones’ first full season back in charge of the club and the Hatters head into the international break in a strong position.

The Hatters’ 1-0 win at Preston North End on Saturday helped them move on to 50 points for the campaign, which is just one short of the points tally they managed to pick up in the whole of last term.

That shows the amount of progress that has been made around the club in such a short period of time since Jones returned towards the end of last season.

Luton will now be able to turn their attentions towards adding to their squad in the summer and potentially looking to make some good signings that can strengthen their ability to kick on further.

That could mean the club considering making a signing that might well rank amongst their most expensive ones in their history.

Here then ahead of that possibility, we take a look through the Hatters’ top ten most expensive ever additions and see where they are now…

Currently, Luton’s tenth most expensive signing in their history is forward Rowan Vine, who was signed by the Hatters for a fee of around £250,000 back in the summer of 2005 from Portsmouth after he had enjoyed an impressive loan spell with the club in 2004/05.

Vine was able to help the Hatters establish themselves back in the Championship in the 2005/06 campaign and he went on to register ten goals in 31 league appearances that term. The following campaign, the forward was unable to help the club survive in the second tier but he did manage to make 30 appearances in all competitions and score 14 goals.

That form was enough to convince Birmingham City to pay around £2.5 million for him in January 2007, but he only managed to score one goal in 17 appearances despite the Blues earning promotion to the Premier League. Vine was loaned out to QPR in 2007/08 and he scored four goals in 18 appearances before his move was made permanent that winter window.

The forward spent another four years with the Rs managing to score nine goals in 72 appearances. He was then transferred to St Johnstone in 2012. Vine has never really managed to be a prolific scorer for the rest of his career so far, with his best scoring season coming with non-league Hartley Wintney with ten goals in 2017/18. He is still playing though currently with Hemel Hempstead Town.

Coming in at number nine on this list is Phil Gray, who will also appear later on this list for his return to the club. The forward was initially signed in the summer of 1991 for a fee of around £275,000 with him arriving from Tottenham Hotspur.

Gray arrived at Luton and managed to make a positive impression during his time at the club adding a reliable goalscoring presence on his day and that saw him manage to register 22 goals in his 59 appearances for the Hatters. He was eventually sold by the club to move to Sunderland in July 1993.

Having left for Sunderland Gray went on to spend three years with the Black Cats where he made 115 appearances and managed to score 34 goals during that time. That led to a move to Nancy where he had just a short spell managing to score four goals in 16 appearances before mocing to the Netherlands with Fortuna Sittard.

For Fortuna Sittard he managed to register just one goal in 15 matches up to his second signing for Luton, which will be explored later on in this list.

Coming in at number eight on this list is forward Sam Parkin, who was signed by the Hatters back in the summer of 2006 with the club paying a reported fee of around £340,000 to Ipswich Town for his services.

Parking endured an injury-hit first season with the Hatters and that saw him able to score just one goal in eight appearances as they were relegated back down to the Championship. The following campaign the forward managed to make more of an impact and he fired in five goals in 20 appearances in all competitions, but again could not help the club from suffering another relegation.

The 2008/09 season saw Parkin manage to register a further four goals in 28 appearances. However, he was also loaned out to Leyton Orient with the Hatter struggling to pay his wages and he left permanently in the summer of 2009 signing for Walsall.

The forward managed to score three goals in 24 appearances for the Saddlers before having spells in Scotland with the likes of St Johnstone, Queen of the South and St Mirren before he returned to England and finished his career with three goals in 26 matches for Exeter City in 2013/14. He has since gone on to work as a pundit and regularly appears on BBC Wiltshire as part of Swindon Town’s matchday coverage.

Coming in at number seven on this list is Paul Walsh, who was signed by the Hatters back in 1982 for around £400,000 after he had impressed with Charlton Athletic.

Walsh managed to make an instant positive impression for the Hatter and quickly established himself as a reliable scorer for them racking up 15 goals in all competitions in his first full season at the club in 1982/83. The following campaign the forward went on to win the PFA Young Player of the Year Award after he had netted 14 goals in 42 appearances in all competitions in the 1983/84 campaign.

He was snapped up by Liverpool in 1984 following his impressive form with the Hatters and he managed to score 13 goals in his first season before his 18 goals in the 1985/86 campaign helped the Reds secure the First Division title. However, the next season he suffered a dip in form and scored just six goals. Walsh was eventually allowed to leave for Tottenham Hotspur in February 1988.

The forward went on to make 156 appearances for Tottenham and score 21 goals before eventually leaving the club for Portsmouth, where he enjoyed two campaigns and scored 21 goals for Pompey. A three-year spell at Manchester City followed before he retired after a short spell back with Portsmouth in 1995/96. Since his retirement, he has worked as a pundit and appeared on Sky Sports regularly.

Coming in at sixth place on this list is the return of Phil Gray. The forward was resigned by the Hatters for around £400,000 back in September 1997 after his short spell with Fortuna Sittard.

Gray managed to spend the next three years with the Hatters where he managed to make 81 appearances in his second spell and managed to score 21 goals during those matches. However, at the end of the 1999/2000 season, he was allowed to leave the club after the club could only finish in 13^th place in the second division.

Burnley would be his next destination, but Gray failed to make an impact during his time at Turf Moor and was able to make just five appearances for the Clarets. After just a few months he made the move to Oxford United in November 2000 and found life much better with the Us managing to score 11 goals in 44 appearances for the club before leaving in 2002.

The forward took in spells with the likes of Stevenage Borough and Maidenhead United before retiring in 2005 after a short spell with Stotfold.

Coming in at fifth place on this list is Mark Ovendale, who the Hatters paid around £425,000 for in August 2000 to sign him from Bournemouth.

Ovendale went on to establish himself as the Hatters’ number one goalkeeper at the start of the 2000/01 campaign, but he did at times lose his place to Nathan Abbey. However, with Abbey released from his deal the Hatters then made a move to sign Carl Emberson which somewhat pushed Ovendale down the pecking order.

Overall, Ovendale managed to make 45 appearances for the Hatters, before he was eventually allowed to leave the club in 2003. He went on to sign for Barry Town, bit switly changed to York City where he was the number one keeper for the 2003/04 season but could not prevent the club from being relegated to the Conference that campaign.

He was released at the end of that season and went on to sign for Tiverton Town where he made over 100 appearances in two years. Short spells then followed with the likes of Newport County and Wimborne Town before he was forced to retire from the game in 2007 with a hip injury. He worked for a short spell as a coach with Wimborne before his death in 2011.

At number on this list is Adam Boyd who was signed by the Hatters for a fee of around £500,000 back in the summer of 2006 from Hartlepool United.

Boyd managed to spend just a single campaign with the Hatters and failed to replicate the type of form that saw him score 29 goals for Hartlepool during the 2004/05 campaign. In total, the forward could only manage two goals for Luton in 23 appearances in all competitions in the 2006/07 campaign as the club suffered relegation from the Championship.

The striker went on to sign for Leyton Orient ahead of the 2007/08 season and he managed to get his career back on track during his time with them managing to score 17 goals in 49 appearances in all competitions in his first season. The following year Boyd went on to score 12 goals in 39 appearances and that earned him a move back to Hartlepool in 2009.

The forward spent the next three seasons with the club he left for Luton back in 2006 and his best scoring season of nine goals came in the 2009/10 campaign. He eventually retired from football after short spells playing in the lower leagues of English football.

In third place on this list is goalkeeper Ian Feuer who was signed by the Hatters in 1995 from West Ham for a fee of around £580,000 after he had had a successful short loan spell with the club.

Feuer managed to establish himself swiftly as Luton’s number one goalkeeper and was an impressive performer at times for the Hatters. He managed to feature in 90 successive league matches before that run was halted by an injury to his shoulder. He eventually finished up with 110 appearances for the club across all competitions before leaving and signing for New England Revolution in 1998.

He spent one year with New England Revolution before signing for Colorado Rapids in 1999 where he made 21 appearances before returning to English football with Cardiff City in 2000 and then having short spells with the likes of West Ham, Wimbledon, Derby County, Tranmere Rovers and Wolves before his retirement. He has since worked as a coach with the likes of LA Galaxy.

In second place on this list is defender Steve Davis, who was signed by the Hatters from Burnley in the summer of 1995 for around £750,000 after he had impressed during a four-year spell at Turf Moor.

Davis was a very solid performer for the Hatters throughout his three-year spell with the club where he made over 130 appearances and managed to score 21 goals from centre-back. However, he could prevent the Hatters from being relegated from the First Division in 1996 and then could not get them back up the first division the following campaign with them finishing in third place.

He was eventually re-signed by Burnley in December 1998 with the Clarets paying more for him than Luton had spent. During his second spell with the Clarets, the defender managed to help the club to promotion back to the First Division in 1999/2000 and he went on to make 156 appearances for the club before leaving for Blackpool.

Davis would spend just one season with the Tangerines making 29 appearances before he finished his career with a two-year spell at York City. Since retiring he has worked as a coach with Burnley and Bolton Wanderers and he was part of the coaching staff that saw Burnley win promotion back to the Premier League in the 2008/09 campaign.

Luton’s current most expensive ever signing is also their current goalkeeper Simon Sluga who arrived at the Hatters from Rijeka in the summer of 2019 for a fee of around £1.34 million.

Sluga is still currently with the Hatters and has managed to establish himself as the club’s first-choice keeper despite a couple of shaky moments during his first few months. The keeper managed to keep six clean sheets in his 33 Championship appearances last term and averaged 2.9 saves per game as he helped keep the club in the English second tier.

So far this term, Sluga has managed to record nine clean sheets in 28 Championship appearances, while he has been making 2.6 saves per game. The keeper is growing into life with the Hatters and he is starting to look ever more like the player that the club thought he could become when they broke their record transfer fee for him in 2019.