Luton Town must launch bid to sign 18-goal forward – He can lead Matt Bloomfield’s L1 promotion charge | OneFootball

Luton Town should go after Ivorian striker Richard Kone from Wycombe Wanderers to reunite him with Matt Bloomfield.

Having suffered back-to-back relegations, Luton Town will have to quickly adjust and prepare for life back in the third-tier of English football and one man that the Hatters should be targeting this summer is Wycombe Wanderers forward Richard Kone.

Luton appeared to be on course for survival as they headed into the final day of the campaign sitting outside the bottom three and the relegation places, but a 5-2 defeat to West Bromwich Albion at The Hawthorns saw them sink below Hull City and through the trapdoor.

The Hatters endured a difficult return to the Championship and mid-way through the campaign appointed Matt Bloomfield to replace Rob Edwards. It took time for Bloomfield to get to grips with his squad, but they eventually did majorly improve before the end of the season.

Now Luton should be looking to reunite Bloomfield, who came from Wycombe, with the Chairboys’ star attacker Kone, who shone under his former boss and would surely provide Luton with the requisite firepower to immediately propel them back up.

Kone’s brilliance under Bloomfield

On New Year’s Day, Wycombe scored a last-gasp winner to defeat Exeter City by two goals to one to send themselves to the top-of-the-table, above eventual record-breaking Birmingham City, who set the new EFL points tally record of 111.

Their first-half of the campaign was simply superb, and they achieved it with a fluent and attacking style of football implemented by Bloomfield and carried out by an array of attackers headed up by Kone.

The 21-year-old Ivorian forward had scored 13 goals in 25 appearances in League One under the management of Bloomfield before his departure to Luton and then added a further three goals before the end of the month and before the appointment of Mike Dodds.

An injury and a regression in his form following Dodds’ appointment saw the Abidjan-born striker manage only two more goals in his final 13 games of the regular season.

From the moment Wycombe signed Kone, even if goals didn’t immediately come, it was clear that there was more than just a good player for League One there, and it was Bloomfield who truly got the best out of him.

Harnessing that ability once again in a team that should be, on paper, far superior to what Wycombe had at their disposal would surely see him return to the simply sensational form from the first-half of the campaign. Particularly considering who will be in the dugout at Kenilworth Road.

Luton’s attacking options

Still blessed by Premier League parachute payments, a genuinely good squad for the third-tier that saw the arrivals of Millenic Alli and Thelo Aasgaard bolster it further in the winter transfer window and a manager who has proven himself capable of punching above his weight in League One, Luton already seem well-placed to be one of the title favourites next season.

One area of the squad that has always been a slight issue would be up-front, with Carlton Morris and Elijah Adebayo often providing admirable contributions, both in terms of goals scored or general presence, but lacking a prolific streak, albeit at a higher level.

For example, even when they gained promotion to the top-flight in the 2022/23 campaign, they had scored just 57 goals in their 46 league games, which was the same return as bottom-half Norwich City.

Aasgaard and Alli should already provide a potent threat in the third-tier but from different positions, and they also brought in Norwegian forward Lasse Nordas from Tromso a few months ago, but he is yet to find the net for the Hatters.

Morris’ best campaign in terms of a goal return came when he notched 20 of those 57 Luton goals a couple of seasons ago, but that is the only time he has hit double figures in the EFL, whilst Adebayo has reached ten in the Premier League and League Two with 16 in 40 during the 2021/22 Championship campaign.

Kone, who joined Wycombe from Athletic Newham in 2023, would perhaps still be an addition that comes with risk, but his proven ability to thrive under Bloomfield would offset much of that risk, and he would appear like someone who would be an ideal fit for a promotion-challenging Luton side.

One hurdle might be Championship interest in the best player in League One, according to the EFL awards, yet the Bloomfield factor cannot be played down. If Luton show the ambition to land Kone, he could be a great signing to help them bounce straight back into the Championship.