When Aston Villa could recall Samuel Iling-Junior from West Brom loan revealed | OneFootball

Iling-Junior has endured a frustrating loan spell at The Hawthorns

The timescale has been revealed regarding when Aston Villa could potentially recall Samuel Iling-Junior from his current loan spell at local rivals, West Bromwich Albion.

According to a report from Jacob Tanswell of the Athletic, the Villans have until Friday, January 16th to make a decision on whether the England Under-21 international will return to Villa Park, at least in the short-term, after a frustrating six-month stint at The Hawthorns.

It has been an extremely disappointing Championship season so far for the Baggies, who are now gearing up for yet another new era in B71 following the recent appointment of ex-Minnesota United boss and Manchester United plus Chelsea coach, Eric Ramsay, on a two-and-a-half year contract in place of Ryan Mason, who was relieved of his duties on January 6th.

The new Albion boss will take charge of his new club for the first time on Friday evening, as automatic promotion hopefuls, Middlesbrough, make the trip to the West Midlands.

As such, it has been an extremely quick turnaround for the 34-year-old following the confirmation of his appointment earlier in the week, as well as his first press conference as head coach, which took place at The Hawthorns on Wednesday afternoon.

Despite taking charge during the current winter transfer window, Ramsay could be set for a busy initial period in his maiden job as the leading man in the dugout in English football, with the deadline not until 7PM on Monday, February 2nd.

And, whilst every player in this part of the Black Country will be hoping for a clean slate under Ramsay's management, Iling-Junior may not be afforded such an opportunity, with there still the potential that his second Championship loan stint is cut short six months' ahead of schedule.

When Aston Villa could recall Samuel Iling-Junior from West Bromwich Albion loan revealed

Iling-Junior's career path up to this point has certainly been intriguing, to say the least. However, that doesn't necessarily mean it has gon in the way in which he envisaged a handful of years ago.

Indeed, the London-born man opted to leave Chelsea's academy ranks in order to pursue a move to Serie A giants, Juventus, where he made 45 senior appearances before moving to Villa Park 18 months ago.

Iling-Junior moved to B6 at the same time as his former Juventus colleague and Argentinian midfielder, Enzo Barrenechea, with his individual segment of the double-transfer costing Unai Emery's side a reported €14m (£11.8m).

However, he is still yet to make a senior competitive appearance for this season's UEFA Europa League favourites, initially returning to Italy on a loan deal with Bologna, which ironically saw him come on as a substitute against his parent club in a 2-0 win for Villa in the UEFA Champions League, before spending the second half of last season on loan with Middlesbrough under Michael Carrick.

Despite being utilised as a left-back under the newly-appointed Manchester United interim boss, he became one of Mason's final signings across what proved to effectively be his only transfer window at The Hawthorns.

Although he netted a fine strike against Leicester City on debut on September 26th, Iling-Junior has since struggled for regular minutes and form massively, and it was initially reported by BBC WM last month that talks had been held over a potential termination of said loan agreement as well as that of Toby Collyer, who has since returned to Old Trafford after an injury-hit stint of his own.

The Athletic now state that the cut-off point for this decision to be made is 16th January, leaving Villa with just over 24 hours to decide the fortunes of the 16-time England youth international.

West Bromwich Albion have been urged to cut ties with Samuel Iling-Junior

With Iling-Junior often becoming a source of frustration for the Albion faithful, it has left the player in a tricky situation, as he, like any of his colleagues, could be transformed under Ramsay.

However, that isn't exactly the viewpoint that was shared by Football League World's West Brom fan pundit, Callum Burgess, who said: It wouldn’t be an exit in the scenario of a sale or a player being loaned out, but an exit that many West Brom fans would like to see this month is the end of Samuel Iling-Junior’s loan, especially seeing the impact Ollie Bostock had against Swansea City by getting the assist for Jed Wallace’s goal.

“Having Iling-Junior for the rest of the season would probably limit Bostock’s chances, even though every outfield player on the bench last Sunday managed to get on the pitch, apart from Iling-Junior," he added.

At present, though, it remains to be seen what decision is final from Villa's point of view.