Nathan Jones has called on striker Sam Nombe to “do more” to prove he wants to be a Luton Town player.
The 22-year-old joined the Hatters in October on loan from Milton Keynes, but with an option to buy at the end of the campaign.
But goalless Nombe has only featured seven times and is yet to start in the Championship, having only managed a combined 77 minutes on the pitch. The last of his appearances came on January 30 and he had been missing from recent match-day squads, but returned as an unused substitute on Tuesday night for the 1-0 Championship win over Nottingham Forest.
Town signed Elijah Adebayo from Walsall in January and he’s currently moved firmly above Nombe and even top scorer James Collins in the pecking order, scoring in consecutive games after making his full debut.
Asked what the Milton Keynes Academy product needs to show to feature more, Jones said: “He needs to do more, so if he reads this, he needs to do more and he knows that.
“He has certain attributes that we really like and we need at this football club but he needs to do more.
“I’m not going to go into detail with that because I don’t… but he needs to do more, so I’m telling everyone else out there, that he needs to do more.
“If he wants to be a Luton Town player and really wants that hunger and desire and heart to play for this football club then he needs to do more.
“I hope he does because he has some wonderful attributes, some really wonderful attributes, but we’ve got a group here that trample on things to get to the next level and would die for the club and really give everything.
“If Sam Nombe wants to have a career at Luton, he has to do that.”
And with Town to decide on his future come the end of the season, the window of time to impress in narrowing.
Asked if the forward needs to be better, Jones said: “It’s not just (being) better, he needs to do more, is what I’m saying, so I’ll leave that there.
“People can read into that whatever they want and he knows, so I’m not saying anything out of turn.
“I very rarely do this, but I’m saying that we’ve always had a hunger here, always had a hunger and desire to really, really do well and we love players that have that hunger, we’ve loved and thrived on it.
“We still have it now as we can’t compete financially with anyone in his Championship so what we do is with hunger and work and good recruitment and we don’t want to make a mistake with Sam Nombe.
“So now Sam Nombe has to step up and go, ‘I want to play for this club, I want to be here, I want to make you better’ and ability-wise he will.
“So that’s what we want from him and I hope he does as he’s a nice kid, he settles in well, but he has to get above players that have done fantastically well for this football club.”
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