Premier League duo Fulham and Nottingham Forest both failed with ‘lucrative’ offers to sign Aston Villa’s £11 million midfielder Marvelous Nakamba before the deadline passed, as reported by The Herald.
So far this season, Nakamba has not played a single minute of football. He’s even been left out of the matchday squad for three of Aston Villa’s five league games.
With that in mind, you’d perhaps have expected that Steven Gerrard would jump at the chance to cash in on a player who now finds himself well down the pecking order following the arrivals of Boubacar Kamara and Leander Dendoncker.
Not so.
According to The Herald, Villa would have preferred to loan Nakamba out, after first extending his contract. His current deal expires in 2024. Nottingham Forest and Fulham, however, both wanted to sign the former Club Brugge ball-winner on a permanent basis; tabling ‘lucrative’ offers.
Marvelous Nakamba is now stuck at Aston Villa
It seems that, despite his lack of game-time, Gerrard still feels Nakamba can have a part to play.
It’s worth remembering that the under-fire coach described the Zimbabwe international as an ‘outstanding’ talent last term, with Nakamba playing the best football of his Premier League career early on in Gerrard’s reign before an injury brought an early end to his campaign.
And with Douglas Luiz now playing further forward as a ‘number eight’, Nakamba is perhaps the only real, natural alternative to Kamara in front of Villa’s error-prone backline. Furthermore, the Midland giants were never likely to let Nakamba go on deadline day. Not when Luiz’s future was so uncertain.
Arsenal made three bids before eventually accepting defeat; the biggest being a £25 million offer.
“I’ve got confidence (Luiz) will understand the situation” Gerrard says ahead of Saturday’s daunting home clash with Manchester City. “And the club’s decision.
“We didn’t want to lose a very important player and a top player so late in the window.
“From a personal point of view, I very much back the club’s decision and stance on that. I spoke to Dougie face to face yesterday. And he understood where it was at, and the position that the club was in.
“He very much respects the decision. Hopefully it will calm down in the hours and days to come and he’ll be fine moving forward.”
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