The Milton Keynes-raised football star Jeffrey Schlupp has signed for a new club after joining Championship side Norwich City.

Schlupp left Crystal Palace at the end of last season, and the 32-year-old has now made a move to East Anglia. He has signed a one-year contract with Norwich.

The Ghanian international, who moved to Milton Keynes from Germany as a child and attended schools in the Bradville and Oakgrove areas of the city, is Norwich’s 12th new signing ahead of the upcoming season. The upcoming campaign will see the Canaries be managed by former MK Dons boss Liam Manning, who arrived from Bristol City in June, with one of Manning’s former Dons players in Harry Darling also making the move to Norfolk.

Schlupp broke through at Leicester City, having previously been in the Foxes’ academy. He made 150 appearances for the East Midlands club, including 24 league appearances in Leicester’s famed 2015/16 Premier League title-winning campaign and 3 appearances in the Champions League the following season.

He then moved to Crystal Palace in January 2017, where he made 220 Premier League appearances as the South London club have established themselves as Premier League regulars.

Schlupp played his last game for the Eagles in January, with the player spending the second half of last season on loan with Scottish side Celtic. He made 13 appearances for the Bhoys as they won the Scottish league title. In his career, he has also received 20 caps with the Ghana national team.

In an arrival interview with the official Norwich City website, Schlupp said he was excited for what was to come at Carrow Road.

He said, “I’m really excited, it’s something new again but a lot to look forward to back in the Championship at a big club.

“I’ve spoken to the head coach about the plan for this year and I am excited to be involved.

“I’m looking forward to meeting all the players and hopefully we can create something special this year.”

Goalkeeper Jack Walton has left Luton Town to sign for Championship club Preston North End.

The 27-year-old was part of a double signing confirmed by Preston on Tuesday (22/07), with the Lancashire club also signing Michael Smith after he left Sheffield Wednesday.

Walton leaves Kenilworth Road after two-and-a-half years contracted to the Hatters, although he never played a first team game for the club.

After spending half a season at the club as a third choice goalkeeper during the 2022/23 season in which Luton won promotion to the Premier League, Walton spent both of the last two seasons on loan with Scottish side Dundee United.

In his time with the Tangerines, Walton helped Dundee United achieve promotion from the Scottish Championship in 2023/24 and then manage a surprise 4th place finish on their return to the Scottish Premiership last season.

Walton made 85 appearances in all competitions in his two years playing at Tannadice Park.

He joins a new-look goalkeepers unit at Preston, with the Lancashire club having also signed Daniel Iversen from Leicester City, and seeing previous first choice Freddie Woodman leave on a free transfer.

Moving to Deepdale also reunites Walton with his former boss Paul Heckingbottom, with the goalkeeper having previously worked for the Preston manager in their time together at Barnsley.

Walton told the official Preston website that he was keen to compete against Iversen and Dai Cornell, who the club have retained as another option between the sticks.

He said, “I want to get on the grass and get my boots and gloves on and do my talking on there.

“I know they’ve got very good goalkeepers here and hopefully I can improve that area and push the competition with the other goalkeepers.

“Obviously as a player, I want to play as high a level as possible. The Championship we all know is a very difficult league. There’s a lot of quality in there and it’s something that I want to test myself with.”

Paul Warne said he is pleased to see MK Dons are making progress ahead of the opening of the new season despite a late loss to Peterborough.

The Dons’ Head Coach spoke after his side’s sole home friendly ahead of the 2025/26 season ended in defeat, with MK Dons conceding two goals late on to lose 2-1 at home to Peterborough United.

Reflecting after the game, Warne said he felt the team is making decent progress ahead of the season opener against Oldham Athletic on August 2nd.

He said, “I am disappointed to lose but it isn’t about that for me. I could lose all the pre-season games – it’s all about what we do next Saturday. It was just good to see for large parts of the game, the lads get the press right, the boring stuff about defending throw-ins right and I thought we had a real vibrancy to ourselves when we were playing forwards.

“I really liked and enjoyed it. I think as each week goes by, the lads are getting more like a team I want to manage.”

Speaking further on the team’s work, he said that the team is getting closer to the blueprint of how he wants them to play ahead of the season opener.

He said, “There’s times where we’re nearly perfect, but then the last pass is just a bit behind or the shot is just a bit off-target. It just looked a bit more polished tonight as we get a little bit closer and that’s really what we want.”

One concern for Warne came in defence. With Nathan Thompson, Jack Sanders and Laurence Maguire all absent through injury, a further defensive injury came up when Sam Sherring was substituted during the first half after pulling up with an injury. Warne said he was sympathetic for Sherring and hoped it wouldn’t be a severe absence.

He said, “It’s always disappointing for the players if they get injured this late in pre-season. We had good news about Nathan – he’s only out for a couple of weeks. But I think as a player with my player’s head on and I was playing or starting tonight, I’d want to give a good performance to get a chance to play again on Saturday and a good chance to play again next week, however that looks.

“For anyone to get injured this late is hard to take because you’ve done all the hard work, although at least he’s got all that in the tank with the hard running. It is a tough pill for him and hopefully it might not be too severe, but my gut feeling for him is disappointment.”

Looking ahead to the season, Warne said he was happy with the balance and preparedness of his squad overall, but felt they could still use some reinforcements.

He said, “I’m pretty pleased with where we’re at. I still think we definitely need another couple of bodies in which I’ll endeavour to try and do, but if we go into the game next week with the group we’ve got, I’ll be really pleased. They’ve got the messaging really well and have been coached really well.

“I think we’ve got enough to attack League 2 but you always want more. That’s the joy of being a manager and if I can strengthen that, I will.”

Luton Town have announced the loan signing of Gideon Kodua, with the winger joining the Bedfordshire club from West Ham.

Kodua, 20, will join Luton on a season-long loan move with an option for Luton to buy him.

The deal sees Kodua once again work with Matt Bloomfield, who brought him to Wycombe in separate loan spells over the last two seasons.

Wycombe signed Kodua on loan in January 2024 for the second part of the 2023/24 campaign and then brought him back to Adams Park for the 2024/25 campaign. He made a total of 35 appearances in his time with the Chairboys.

Luton Town Manager Matt Bloomfield told the club’s official website that he was excited to work with him once more.

He said, “He’s a boy I love; he’s got a steel, a resilience and a determination about him.

“He came through as captain of West Ham’s Under-18s and we signed him twice before, so it stands to reason we think a lot of him.

“He offers options both at wing-back, in attacking wide areas and in a high 10 position, and brings good dribbling ability while linking play.

“He’s got pace and power, he’s a great lad, and he will be someone who our fans will love watching.”