Villa midfielder Nakamba praised by Zimbabwe boss for making 'brilliant' deadline day move to Luton

Aston Villa midfielder Marvelous Nakamba was been praised for taking the chance to ‘restart his career’ by making a ‘brilliant’ move to Luton Town on transfer deadline day, according to Zimbabwe general manager Wellington Mpandare.

The 29-year-old, who headed to the Premier League side for a fee of around £11m from Club Brugge back in 2019, was out of the reckoning under former boss Steven Gerrard at the start of the season, while didn’t break in under new manager Unai Emery either.

With that in mind, Nakamba, who has won 26 caps for his country, the last coming back in November 2021, opted to move to Kenilworth Road for the rest of the campaign, despite having offers from elsewhere.

He will link up with Warriors team-mate Admiral Muskwe, who featured in the recent Africa Cup of Nations, and has been recalled from his loan spell at Fleetwood Town.

Speaking to Zimbabwe paper NewsDay, Mpandare said: “It’s a very good move for Marve, which has got my full blessing.

“There is more to this move than what people see and think.

"Unfortunately, I cannot divulge all the details to the Press, but people should know that Marve made a brilliant move in terms of his career development and of course for his personal life.

“This is a chance for him to restart his career.

"For some reason, things were not moving well for him at Villa so this is a chance for him to get some game time which is the most important thing for a footballer and to market himself.

"His talents are undoubted and it's just a matter of time before Villa or another league team realises and get him.

"He still has a lot to offer and I'm sure he will do well.

“The other positive thing from his move is he is linking up with Muskwe and it’s good for the national team.

"It gives them a chance to bond for the next six months.

"And also remember Luton are not very far in the Championship race, so who knows, maybe he will help the team get promoted into the EPL and it will be easy for them to make his loan move permanent.”

Discussing his decision to join the Hatters, boss Rob Edwards added: “I’m delighted to get that one done, a big thank you to everyone involved in the process.

"He’s a brilliant person and a very good footballer, talented footballer, he’s going to help us a lot.

"We’ve been looking, we've got some brilliant midfield players, but probably lacking in terms of numbers of the natural holding midfielders and that’s certainly what he is.

"He’s going to really help.”