Nathan Jones has revealed that Luton had tried to sign new boy Sam Nombe from Milton Keynes at Christmas after Mick Harford identified the striker, before finally getting their man last week.
The manager was out of work at the time, while assistant boss Harford was chief recruitment officer, but the Welshman was happy to endorse the club’s scouting work when he returned in the summer for a second spell in charge.
Nombe has initially joined on a season-long loan, but with an option to make the deal permanent and Jones said: “To be fair, the club’s been following him for a while. The initial bid went in to MK at Christmas and obviously I wasn’t here, so since I’ve come in he’s been somebody on the radar and we followed that up and we’re all fully behind the signing.
“Mick identified him and previous people identified him. For whatever reason, they didn’t get him, so now we’re glad to get him.”
The striker will be available for tomorrow’s Championship clash at Millwall, having missed Saturday’s 2-0 defeat to Stoke because he was signed after the midday cut-off point on transfer deadline day.
And while Nombe is seen as a player to mould, Jones confirmed he will be part of the first-team set-up, which is currently short in the striking department as the club awaits Coronavirus test results for James Collins.
“He’ll add to the two established ones and Harry Cornick, so it gives him time. There’s not the pressure on him,” said Jones.
“If he’s ready, he’ll go in, but we’ll get a chance to evaluate him and then put him on the right path.
“He has pace and power, willingness to learn, he has a lot of attributes. We want athleticism. We’re in the Championship now, where everyone has athleticism and pace and power. We don’t have that in abundance, we have that in certain individuals, but we need to develop that side and Sam ticks that box.
“To get ready-made pace, power and talent, is outside our budget, but that’s why we’ve always been a developing club and we like to cultivate talent here, so he will be given an opportunity.
“He’s a first team player now, but he needs development. He’s still young and still finding his way in the game.
“We’ve identified one very early to try to get him in our environment and try to develop him into what we would like him to be. He has some wonderful attributes. He has certain things he can work on, certain things he does naturally and certain things we’ll have to put in his game.
“He’s one for the future and one that we won’t see his full potential for a while, but he’s in the building because he’s a first-team player.”
