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Eddie Chikamhi-Senior Sports Reporter
PLAYING opportunities continue to elude Marvelous Nakamba, even under new head coach Unai Emery, as the Zimbabwean midfielder only featured a combined 15 minutes in the two friendly matches that his English Premiership football side Aston Villa played during a mid-season training camp in the United Arab Emirates.
Nakamba was a late substitute when Aston Villa rounded off their training camp in the Middle East on Sunday with a 1-0 victory over Chelsea. He had played only nine minutes of their 2-2 draw with Brighton & Hove Albion last Thursday.
Villa, however, still have another friendly match against Spanish La Liga side Villarreal this coming Thursday as they step up their match fitness in readiness for the return of English Premier League action in two weeks’ time. Emery had indicated he wanted to use the friendly matches to give some of the players that have not been getting game-time an opportunity to impress him.
Nakamba was one of them. The 28-year-old had not played a match in the English Premiership, with the season approaching the halfway stage. The Hwange-born midfielder fell out of favour with previous coach Steven Gerrard following a serious knee injury. He has also not featured under Emery in both the Premiership and the EFL Cup competitions.
The Warriors midfielder is facing an uncertain future at the English Premiership side and has been earmarked for disposal during the upcoming January window.
At his unveiling recently, the Spaniard Emery said of the January transfer market: “For now we focus on the players we have, to try and improve their performances individually, to give them confidence to better their skills and capacity.”
The trip was also meant to help Emery, who won his first two English Premier League games in charge against Manchester United and Brighton, to continue implementing his ideas on the squad.
Emery also gave opportunities to Under-21 midfielder Arjan Raikhy and 16-year-old Kadan Young.
Overall, Emery fielded a strong XI for both matches and it appeared the trio of John McGinn, Boubacar Kamara and Douglas Luiz was his favoured choice for the midfield.
Nakamba is heavily tipped to leave the club in January along with goalkeeper Jed Steer, Jan Bednarek, Frederic Guilbert, Ludwig Augustinsson, Morgan Sanson, Philippe Coutinho and Cameron Archer.
A loan deal is likely to happen for Nakamba, whose Villa contract runs until June 2024. Although Emery has not made an official position on January transfer business, former Villa defender Alan Hutton warned earlier this month that the “writing’s on the wall” for the Zimbabwe international midfielder.
Nakamba made his first start of the season when he played 67 minutes in the first mid-season friendly match against Cardiff City two weeks ago. The match dubbed the Peter Whittingham Memorial Match kicked-off the mid-season friendly matches. The encounter celebrated and paid tribute to the former Villa and Cardiff midfielder, who sadly passed away in March 2020 at the age of just 35 years. Villa lost the match 3-1. Despite being substituted after playing slightly over an hour in that game, there was still more to expect for Nakamba during the tour of the UAE where they had two more games lined up. But he spent most of the time on the bench. Nakamba played the last nine minutes as Aston Villa continued their mid-season preparations with a 2-2 draw against Brighton & Hove Albion in Dubai.
Online Reporter