Dutch midfielder appears to have played his last game for Luton

Dutch midfielder Davy van den Berg appears to have played his last game for the Hatters after coming to the end of his loan spell at Kenilworth Road.

The 26-year-old joined on a loan deal from Eredivisie side FC Utrecht until the end of the season on deadline back in February, immediately making his debut from the bench in the 2-1 win over Bradford City. He also came on in the next four league matches, earning his first start in the 1-1 draw at Doncaster Rovers, before spending the majority of his time at Kenilworth Road utilised as a substitute until the final month of the campaign, starting three games in succession.

Van den Berg also began twice in the Vertu Trophy as well, the quarter-final and semi-final wins over Plymouth Argyle and Northampton Town, but didn’t make the squad for the final at Wembley and only came on for the final nine minutes at Bolton Wanderers on Saturday, as despite winning 3-2, the Hatters failed to reach the play-offs.

Speaking about the ex-Netherlands youth international recently, Hatters boss Jack Wilshere had appeared open to the possibility of keeping him in Bedfordshire next term, saying: “He’s one of those players who will take and has taken a couple of games for the players around him to get used to him, but I think everyone can see his quality. He’s been frustrated that he hasn’t played that much, but I said to him that his biggest problem has been that Kasey (Palmer) and Clicker have been two of our better performers all season, so it’s been difficult for him to get in.

“I like him, I really like him as a player. I want good players here and he is a good player, but I think it all depends on a lot of things between now and then. So let’s get to the end of the season and we can sit down and say ‘what do you think about this situation, what do you think about this one?’ He’s a player that I like, so of course I would like to keep good players at Luton and he’s a good player.”

When announcing the addition of van den Berg, who went on make 17 appearances in total for the Hatters in all competitions, with seven starts, Luton revealed his deal had contained a conditional obligation to buy. However, like forward Ali Al-Hamadi, who has returned to Ipswich, it doesn’t look that option will be taken up as writing on his official Instagram page, van den Berg said: “We fought all together, unfortunately it wasn’t enough this time. What is meant for you will reach you. All the best in the future, you Hatters.”