Aston Villa have confirmed that Marvelous Nakamba has left the club in a permanent transfer to join Luton Town for an undisclosed fee.
The 29-year-old joined us from Club Brugge in August 2019 and went on to make 68 appearances for the club prior to moving to Luton on loan for the second half of last season.
Sign up for the new Talk Villa newsletter, your free weekly Villa round-up delivered straight to you!
Having played a key part in their successful promotion push from the Championship, Villa have now confirmed that Nakamba has sealed a permanent return to Kenilworth Road, although they’ve not provided any further details and have noted it is for an undisclosed fee.
Nakamba played an important role for us at times, and particularly stood out in the early months of Steven Gerrard’s tenure in charge before suffering an injury that sidelined him for a significant period.
Following that, he fell down the pecking order in Villa’s midfield, and after the arrival of Unai Emery, we’re now moving in a different direction and bringing in more quality to try and compete at the top level.
While Jacob Ramsey, Douglas Luiz, Boubacar Kamara and John McGinn emerged as pivotal figures in our upturn in form under the Spanish tactician last season, Villa also signed Youri Tielemans this summer, and so Nakamba would have continued to suffer from a severe lack of opportunities to play if he had stayed.
In turn, this move makes sense for all concerned at this stage. The Zimbabwean international will play a more prominent role for Luton, who get a key figure back on a permanent basis, while Villa have hopefully collected a decent fee and cleared space in the squad for Emery to perhaps continue to strengthen.
Time will tell if Tielemans is our only signing for our midfield this summer, but it’s equally as important that Villa continue to balance the books and clear wages as much as possible and maintain a healthy financial position moving forward too. Nakamba’s contract with us was also set to expire next summer, and so securing a permanent move now is the ideal outcome.