MASSIMO Luongo’s mentor David Magrone has revealed that he advised the Town midfielder to stay at the club, at least until the end of the season.

Town fans collectively sighed with relief when the transfer window closed on Monday night with their star Aussie still on the books.

The club rejected a bid from Cardiff on deadline day, as well as previously turning down an offer from a Turkish Süper Lig outfit.

A top-flight Qatari side did make a £3.5 million offer that met Town’s valuation but Luongo rejected the chance to move to the Arabian Peninsula.

Speaking to the Advertiser, Magrone, QPR’s head of recruitment and a man who has mentored Luongo since he was a teenager in Sydney, explained that he counselled the 22-year-old to stick with Swindon and help the club gain promotion to the Championship before assessing his options.

“He’s a young lad, he’s hungry, he knows he can play at a higher level and he doesn’t know when the opportunity is going to come. He’s sort of thinking ‘we have to take the offers because another might not come’,” said Magrone.

“I’m saying to him ‘no, you focus on Swindon because you play an integral part for them. If you get them promotion you’re going to be in the Championship, worst case scenario. Even if you don’t leave the football club, you’ll have won something’.

“His feet are on the ground, but he’s young and he’s hungry.”

Luongo’s profile is at an all-time high following his starring role in Australia’s Asian Cup victory but Magrone feels that the offers he attracted were not sufficiently attractive to the midfielder on a developmental level to warrant leaving Swindon.

The 41-year-old had previously been Luongo’s agent before landing a top scouting job with Tottenham in 2013. He now acts as a confidant to the Town man. It is in this role that he advised Luongo against pushing for the moves on the table.

“We spoke about the Turkey thing and we knew that was not the right environment for him,” he added.

“He’s still too young to venture into that hotbed, in my opinion.

"The Qatar thing I said no to before they even presented it to me. You couldn’t select that for a long-term move, that’s why we knocked that on the head.

“He wouldn’t have been tempted by Cardiff. From my perspective, I don’t think they’ve got a whole lot of money at Cardiff, I don’t think they’re a progressive club. I also look at the manager (Russell Slade) and see him as having a League One mentality and I don’t think he can take Mass to another level. I don’t think he, as a manager, is going anywhere.”

Magrone believes Swindon are unique in League One in being able to offer Luongo a place to develop and remains adamant that his long-time friend will not move for the sake of money.

He added: “It’s all about his football for me. If he achieves his potential on the park, the money’s a by-product.”