Luton Town player tipped for exit - he was once £11m Aston Villa man | OneFootball

The Zimbabwean's future at Kenilworth Road has been a hot topic of discussion

Luton Town's recent plight has been well-documented, although the Hatters have shown recent green shoots of recovery following the appointment of Jack Wilshere last month.

Just 24 months ago, the Bedfordshire side were tasting the riches of the Premier League for the first time, having completed a fairytale underdog story under the management of now-Wolves boss, Rob Edwards, by defeating Coventry City at Wembley Stadium in the 2022/23 Championship play-off final.

As such, numerous high-end players could be recruited at Kenilworth Road for the first time for many years, although there is a school of thought amongst supporters that CEO, Gary Sweet, firmly placed all his financial eggs in the basket of the upcoming stadium development at Power Court, rather than splitting it between on and off-pitch developments.

A rot which had started to set in during the club's solitary Premier League campaign then, surprisingly, continued into Luton's EFL return, with Edwards unable to halt the slide before his exit in January.

Former Wycombe Wanderers boss and the recently dismissed Matt Bloomfield was unable to do the same, with the Hatters becoming the first team in 13 years to suffer back-to-back relegations from the top-flight into League One, despite having several high-profile names still on their books.

Some of those have remained at the club this season, albeit they have enjoyed extremely varying levels of gametime.

One man who remains a recent enigma with supporters is Zimbabwean international, Marvelous Nakamba, and it is now hard to believe that he was once the subject of an eight-figure transfer to Aston Villa just a few short years ago.

Aston Villa struck £11m, Marvelous Nakamba agreement after Championship promotion

Following the Villans' own Championship play-off final success over Derby County in May 2019, Nakamba was one of several players who came through the Villa Park door at the beginning of Dean Smith's first full season in B6.

A previously highly-rated figure at Club Brugge of the Belgian Pro League, although he didn't cost as much as his former and eventual colleague, Wesley, who was signed for a then-club-record £22m, Nakamba was still a £11m buy for the Premier League newcomers on a five-year contract.

The 32-time international made exactly half of his overall appearance tally for Villa in his first season, featuring 34 times across all competitions at the base of midfield.

However, several midfield additions under Smith and his successor, Steven Gerrard, swiftly saw Nakamba become a 'squad player' behind the likes of Douglas Luiz, Morgan Sanson, Ross Barkley, Jacob Ramsey and latterly, Boubacar Kamara.

Indeed, his final appearance for the Birmingham club was on the final day of the 2021/22 season, which saw Villa throw away a 2-0 lead to see Manchester City crowned Premier League champions, before being unfancied by Emery ahead of an initial loan move to Luton under Edwards.

Marvelous Nakamba's Luton Town future debated amid injury concerns

A similar pattern of events has certainly unfolded in Bedfordshire for Nakamba, whose future remains very much up in the air.

After a stellar loan spell which culminated in the aforementioned Wembley success, the midfielder put pen-to-paper on a three-year deal with the Hatters, before featuring in just 13 Premier League games due to an initial knee issue.

Injuries have continued to plague the 31-year-old ever since, with persistent calf issues leading to a total of just 23 appearances since the beginning of last season under Edwards, Bloomfield and now Wilshere. Nakamba has played just 106 minutes of competitive action so far this term, albeit his first start of the campaign came in the recent 3-1 success over Brighton's Under-21s before returning to the treatment table in the past two outings.

As such, it's no surprise that supporters, such as Football League World's Luton Town fan pundit, Simon Mills, have called a potential January exit.

"I'm not sure who might go this January window," Mills told FLW.

"One might assume Marvelous Nakamba, maybe Jacob Brown, but I don't know.

"It's hard to see where both of those players currently fit into Jack Wilshere's squad," he explained. "There's a lot of competition for places, and people are really staking some claims on the pitch here.

Although the fee which Luton parted with to secure Nakamba's services has never been made public, he still had one year left on his deal at Villa Park, which points towards a theory that Villa would have looked to recoup some of the £11m they paid Club Brugge in 2019.