Luton Town urged to recoup a "couple of million" as Stoke City eye midfielder | OneFootball

Our Luton Town fan pundit wants the club to avoid getting into the habit of forcing players to stay, with talks of Lamine Fanne potentially leaving.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Luton Town recently suffered their second relegation in a row, which has dropped them down from the Premier League to League One in one go.

As is often the case with relegated teams, there is an expectation that plenty of players are going to be coming and going from Kenilworth Road this summer.

Fanne linked with departure

One of those linked with a move away is a recent signing that didn't taste the Premier League, young Spanish midfielder Lamine Fanne, who joined last summer from AIK, but spent the first half of the season back on loan at his former club.

Stoke City and Club Brugge are among the clubs interested in the 21-year-old, with there also being potential suitors in La Liga, according to Fotboll Direkt.

Fanne was signed for a reported £3.5 million fee, with add-ons that could total the deal to £5m, so it represented a reasonably big signing for Luton.

The midfielder has been on a meteroic rise, having joined AIK in 2023 from a Spanish fifth division club, taking the Allsvenskan by storm in his time there and being one of the standout players for the Stockholm club. While he hasn't had a great time at Luton and looks to be on his way out, the player seems to still be highly regarded as a potential star of the future.

A busy transfer window for Luton

FLW's Hatters fan pundit Simon Mills foresees a busy transfer window for his club following relegation, saying, "I'm expecting so many of our players to be linked with moves away over the next couple of months because we got relegated. Obviously, stories are going to do the rounds and agents are going to drum up stories about their clients. That’s the way that football goes."

Fanne didn't have too much of an impact at Kenilworth Road, only making 12 Championship appearances at the club. For this reason, Simon doesn't believe that he has seen enough of the youngster and wouldn't be hugely opposed to him leaving the club.

On Fanne's departure, Mills added: "I don’t think Fanne had a terrible time here but I don’t think we saw enough of him. If he was going to leave I would hope that we recoup what we spent on him which was a couple of million I believe."

Simon also wants to see his club avoid making the same mistakes that have potentially led to back-to-back relegations.

Mills added: "But if he wants to move, then I don’t think we should be in the habit of forcing anyone to stay because I think that’s what made morale take a huge hit last season and you saw where that got us. For me, any player who doesn’t want to be here can go."