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Nico departs Kenilworth Road
Luton legend calls time on his Town career
Hatters stalwart Kevin Nicholls has left Left Luton Town by mutual consent.
The all-action midfielder has been sidelined since last season following another operation on a troublesome knee injury.
And his contribution to the club has been hailed by managing director Gary Sweet.
He said: "In the modern era, the phrase 'by mutual consent' is tantamount to saying a contract has been terminated. In this situation, that couldn't be further from the truth.
"We have talked with Kevin all the way through his rehabilitation and at this time we both felt that it was in the best interests of both Luton Town and Kevin Nicholls if we parted company.
"In fact, it was Kevin who originally approached us with the suggestion. In his time at the club he has seen us stand by a number of players who have had long term injuries and he did not want to take money out of the Club when he felt that he wasn't contributing.
"This further evidences Kevin's love for this Football Club. We also feel that it may be in Kevin's best interests to part with the Club as it will give him the option of focusing solely on himself and getting back to full fitness rather than having his progress diverted by Luton Town.
"It is widely acknowledged that Kevin turned down offers from clubs in higher divisions and took a dramatic pay cut to come back to Kenilworth Road.
"His manager at Preston at the time, Alan Irvine, even admitted that shows of loyalty such as this were very rare in the modern game.
"What some don't truly appreciate is that Kevin played down the seriousness of his knee injury last season as he felt responsible for assisting the club in its efforts to gain promotion and didn't want to let the fans, the manager or his team-mates down.
"This led to Kevin playing through excruciating pain and ultimately risking his long term health.
"We genuinely wish Kevin all the best for the future. The word legend is spoken about too easily, but it couldn't be more appropriate in Kevin's case.
"He is arguably the Club's most successful captain having won two promotions and lifted a cup at Wembley.
"Nothing would please us more than to welcome Kevin back to Kenilworth Road as an opposition player and as a guest of the Club's any time he wishes.
"I'm sure we'd all love him to be the first name on the team-sheet in our next legends celebration game, whenever that may be."
Nicholls, 31, made 244 appearances in two spells at Kenilworth Road, scoring 33 goals, and turned down many better offers to rejoin the Hatters two season ago.
The fans' favourite won two promotions with the club during his first spell and lifted the Johnstone's Paint Trophy in front on 40,000 Luton fans after a man of the match dispaly at Wembley in April 2009.
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Weather for Luton
Saturday 04 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -1 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: -1 C to 4 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: North west
