Samuel Iling Junior - back from WBA

[Footy-Vill]

Bargain of the season - I think he’s going to be sensational.

I think you're right. I've just been watching some more of his highlights and one trait he has is the complete unexpected. It's like his brain is on another level, hot wired to confuse the opponent even the fans. He has vision beyond my football watching years, it's like 'how the f**k did he see that pass?' It's magic, dark arts, like speed chess with a ball, it's going to be a joy to watch every week. It's difficult to put into words but I'm sure it won't be long before fans are equally confused and delighted.

Oh and he's not bad at the simple stuff too.

Said this at Juventus
"My goals are high. I want to be a top-class player, winning trophies, being an important part, making people remember, always making people happy. When they see my name I want them to have a smile on their face. Because that’s just the way I have always been when I was younger and people would compliment me and say ‘you played well today; you made me happy’ it made me feel good. It’s about winning but it’s also about that as well. I want to win games: I want to win trophies; I want to be a serial winner and being at Juventus has helped me as well. It’s made me understand the importance of winning.”

[KNVillan]

Looks like Samuel wants a loan move

https://archive.ph/W0YyY

As reported by Jacob Tanswell
https://x.com/TheAthleticFC/status/1825831923437940876?t=a7zoYgoJkT_PhjuYeIolgQ&s=19

[Dave]

Given he was a regular starter for Juventus, you'd hope that it's a loan move somewhere at a pretty decent level.

He'd probably start for a Brentford or a Fulham you'd think.

[eamonn]

It's still a bit weird wrapping the head around us making two different types of signings - those who will challenge for the first team immediately and those we've been more speculative about and are happy to loan-out straight away. Make money on them in the future or maybe reintegrate them.

It's a bit...hollow, innit?

[Ozzjim]

Given he was a regular starter for Juventus, you'd hope that it's a loan move somewhere at a pretty decent level.

He'd probably start for a Brentford or a Fulham you'd think.

Any of the newly promoted sides he would start for surely. Wolves loan might work, they are a wide player light and have no money. He has to play wherever he goes though.

[PaulWinch again]

Does he feel like a bit of an odd signing given the make up of our squad? I had assumed he was going to be more meaningfully involved.

[AV84]

It's still a bit weird wrapping the head around us making two different types of signings - those who will challenge for the first team immediately and those we've been more speculative about and are happy to loan-out straight away. Make money on them in the future or maybe reintegrate them.

It's a bit...hollow, innit?

It is, but in the long term it's better than signing players on big money that we end up stuck with. At least this way we should be able to shift any that aren't improving the 1st team.

[chrisw1]

Does he feel like a bit of an odd signing given the make up of our squad? I had assumed he was going to be more meaningfully involved.

It was just an FFP play.  We got really screwed over with the Luiz sale.  The global fee was incredibly low for a player of his status and the make-weights were exactly that.  We MAY make decent money on them in due course but it's a gamble and doesn't make up for what should have been a £70-80m player sale.

[Dave]

We MAY make decent money on them in due course but it's a gamble and doesn't make up for what should have been a £70-80m player sale.

I don't see why this is a gamble any more than any other signing we'd make. It's easy to forget how young he still is - he's younger than Louie Barry, but has still spent the last two years getting regular game time for Juventus. That's not the same profile as signing Lewis Dobbin.

[pablo_picasso]

Does he feel like a bit of an odd signing given the make up of our squad? I had assumed he was going to be more meaningfully involved.

It was just an FFP play.  We got really screwed over with the Luiz sale.  The global fee was incredibly low for a player of his status and the make-weights were exactly that.  We MAY make decent money on them in due course but it's a gamble and doesn't make up for what should have been a £70-80m player sale.

There is more to Iling-Junior than just FFP fiddling in my humble opinion.

I believe him to be a player that can be big in our future, so to get him before he becomes a £60M+ player is smart forward thinking.

Obviously, it's a bit of a gamble, as all young players are, but the potential benefits of making deals like this could be huge going forward.

If Iling-Junior wants the regular game time that he cant be promised by Villa right now, then a loan would be a good option, but it would have to be at a decent level as he has been playing for Juventus for a year or so now, so at least mid table Prem, or top end France, Italy, Germany or Spain has to be the sort of level we are looking at for him.

And hopefully he comes back a more rounded footballer who can pop straight into our first team.

I do agree that we were shafted on the Luiz deal though. I said it at the time & I believe it now that we needed to add Soule to the deal as well as Barranechea & Iling-Junior to make it worth our while.

[Dante Lavelli]

Just read an article where Leeds are linked. They need a left back and winger apparently so. He’d be an ideal fit for them.

Just about makes sense as he’ll improve more at Leeds than on our bench. However the burden on Jaden would increase as he and Bailey would be the only genuine wingers.

[enigma]

Just read an article where Leeds are linked. They need a left back and winger apparently so. He’d be an ideal fit for them.

Just about makes sense as he’ll improve more at Leeds than on our bench. However the burden on Jaden would increase as he and Bailey would be the only genuine wingers.

He can't go from a regular at Juve to the Championship surely?
I would hope all this had been outlined to him when he signed and it hasn't come as a surprise to be punted off on loan weeks after signing. Would be pretty shitty treatment if so.

[Dave]

Just read an article where Leeds are linked. They need a left back and winger apparently so. He’d be an ideal fit for them.

Tricky. It feels like his playing level should be higher than that. But is his development / our first team / our future PSR compliance, however it pans out be better from:

(a) playing forty games and scoring twenty for Leeds
(b) playing twenty games and scoring five for Wolves
(c) playing ten games and scoring two for us

It's probably the first, but it feels like it would be a big step down for him.

[rougegorge]

I guess the stats at Juventus are a bit misleading as he only started 5 league games last season, so going out on loan may be the best thing, and he is very young.

I wonder if Barrenechea may go on loan as well. Now he was a regular in Serie A last season, albeit at Frosinone.

[pablo_picasso]

Having said that a loan for Iling-Junior might be beneficial, on the flip side, at some point we are going to have to start being selfish & thinking purely about Villa in terms of having a squad that can cope with all of the games we are going to have to play this season.

We are already weakened from a first team perspective for losing Douglas Luiz & Diaby, so do we really want to send all the players that bulk up the squad out on loan?

Its a tough call tbh.