Is Nakamba lacking self-motivation?

Curtworth Masango

MARVELOUS Nakamba’s imminent exit from Aston Villa is now written on the wall.

The midfielder has found himself nudged down the pecking order for a long time.

With Boubacar Kamara and Douglas Luiz flourishing in Villa colours, Nakamba’s situation is so desperate that two managers haven’t found it worth trusting him with game time.

And it only points to one direction – departure from Villa Park – and a new challenge might be all he needs to relaunch his career.

Nakamba hasn’t featured in a competitive match for Villa this season, and his market value is fast depreciating.

The Warriors’ midfielder has certainly not lived up to his billing, as most had expected him to flourish in the English game, considering his debut season.

What could have gone wrong with a player former coach, Steven Gerrard, once fondly spoke of and was at one time on the radar of many English Premier League clubs?

Nakamba played a key role in Gerrard’s team in the early days before suffering an injury. That injury saw him sidelined from December 2021 to April last year.

Since his return, his has been a sad story.

Perhaps Nakamba now lacks the self-belief and the will to perform at the highest level that he once had.

His talent and ability is not in doubt, as he is one of the few Zimbabwean players to break into EPL after the likes of the legendary Peter Ndlovu, Bruce Grobbelaar and Benjani Mwaruwari.

Taking a snippet from what Gerrard said four months ago about Nakamba, he needs to motivate himself and shake off the dust that has kept him on the fringes of the match day squad.

“First and foremost, in football, you have to motivate yourself,” Gerrard told Birmingham Live then. “I try to motivate the players for every single game. But you’ve got to be professional, that’s what you’re paid to be.

“Nothing can change as of now, the window’s shut so there should be a hunger and a will to want to perform and do the best they can.”

“They are contracted here to Aston Villa and I’ll certainly get a feel of all those players of where they are at with their thinking, with what they tell me and the feedback I get and we’ll go from there.”

Gerrard added: “There are obviously a few players who I assume would have liked, or had the opportunity to go elsewhere, like Morgan Sanson, or Nakamba for example.

“It is important I have a chat with all these players face-to-face. But they are very much human beings with feelings,” he said.