Aston Villa have confirmed that Samuel Iling-Junior has joined Bologna on a season-long loan deal.
The 20-year-old joined us earlier this summer from Juventus, and went on to feature in pre-season as he looked to stake his claim for a place in Unai Emery’s plans this season.
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However, after failing to make the matchday squad for our opening games of the Premier League campaign, speculation had steadily built up to suggest that he could move on temporarily for a year.
As per the club’s official statement, that has now been confirmed as Iling-Junior returns to Serie A to play for Bologna, who will also offer him an opportunity to play in the Champions League this season.
In turn, it hopefully proves to be a productive stint for the talented youngster, and with earlier reports suggesting that it is a straight loan with no option to buy included in the agreement, he’ll hopefully return to Villa next summer an improved and more developed player through the likelihood of having a more prominent role.
Emery evidently has prioritised trimming his squad this summer as he wants a strong core group at his disposal to compete across multiple fronts this year, while we have added depth to the squad too in order to cope with a gruelling schedule and potential injury setbacks.
It will be interesting though to see if we are active in the final few days of the summer transfer window when it comes to making more signings and bringing in further reinforcements, and we arguably have now created space in the squad to do so, while we should have increased financial flexibility to bring in the right targets.
As for Iling-Junior though, he will hopefully make the most of his spell with Bologna to emerge as a key player for them in the coming months, and that in turn will set him up to have another shot at breaking into the Villa team next season.
With Jacob Ramsey, Morgan Rogers, John McGinn and others capable of playing in the attacking role on the left flank, coupled with Ian Maatsen and Lucas Digne battling it out for the starting berth at left-back, his opportunities were likely to continue to be limited had he stayed with us, and so it seems to be a smart move for all concerned.
