Exeter City’s worst signing ever? The Luton Town man who completely disappeared

Exeter City’s worst signing ever? The Luton Town man who completely disappeared

It’s not that Admiral Muskwe was bad, the main problem was that he completely disappeared.

After making a total of eight appearances in all competitions during a season-long loan from Luton Town, the attacker is undoubtedly in the running to be Exeter City’s worst-ever acquisition.

The 26-year-old attacker, who was assigned the No. 10 shirt upon arriving at St. James Park as the Grecians’ tenth summer acquisition in 2023, appeared to be destined to be the team’s top scorer.

In typical City fashion, he also showed up with a slight ache and was hurt immediately following his September 2nd debut off the bench against Burton Albion.

His only subsequent appearance was as a substitute in the 89th minute of the team’s 1-0 home defeat to Barnsley on October 7.

Before suffering an injury while playing for Zimbabwe on November 15th of that year, he went on to make just six appearances in League One, totalling 319 minutes on the field.

More than a month later, he played the entire 90 minutes in the terrible 3-0 away loss to Fleetwood Town, which would be his last game for the Grecians.

And so, in eight appearances that included no goals, zero assists and without a single shot on target, the loan forward’s time at Exeter was, effectively, over.

Exeter were desperate for attacking options

It couldn’t have been a worse deal at a worse time.

At the time of Muskwe’s injury, City was in dire need of attacking options and had gone 100 games without a league victory.

Having moved up the leagues with Luton, who were then in the middle of their first Premier League season, the striker was presumably earning a respectable salary as well.

As City supporters turned against the Scottish striker, James Scott’s inability to take the mantle was also giving manager Gary Caldwell a lot of trouble.

Young Sonny Cox was loaned to Yeovil Town in the National League South because he didn’t appear prepared for the rigours of League One competition.If a lack of goals wasn’t bad enough, seeing the bulky centre-back Cheick Diabate wondering gamely around as a sole forward led many to question the sanity of their manager.

There was hope Muskwe would return to Exeter

When Muskwe picked up his hamstring injury, it was described as ‘serious’ by the City boss and that he would be out for a number of months.

In the month of December 2023, Caldwell told the BBC: “As we get closer to January that will probably be a discussion we’ll have with Luton, see what happens there and how much he is going to be out for in terms of the rest of the season.”

Mo Eisa arrived on loan to support the front line in January, but there was still no word on Muskwe’s return date or the status of his loan agreement.

We believe he didn’t play for City again and stayed a member for the remainder of the season.

Muskwe could be Exeter’s worst-ever signing

The only glimmer of light in the whole saga was that the Zimbabwe football association were forced to pick up the striker’s wages as the injury happened while on international duty.

Upon being questioned in January, Caldwell expressed confidence that Muskwe would return to Devon’s capital to play a role in the second half of the season, but no one knows when that stopped.

The overall cost of those 319 minutes would have been far more than the expected return on investment.

It’s never a player’s fault if they get hurt, but the Zimbabwean’s tenure at Exeter was a complete bust and reflects the Grecians’ struggles to find a striker who can score goals since Sam Nombe left eighteen months ago.

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