Bolton Wanderers' Samuel Iling-Junior (Image: CameraSport - Dave Howarth)
Bolton Wanderers' Samuel Iling-Junior (Image: CameraSport - Dave Howarth)
WANDERERS’ new loan signing Samuel Illing-Junior has been urged to make himself right at home.
Steven Schumacher wants the Aston Villa winger to settle down for a full season of Championship football after moving clubs in each of the last four transfer windows.
Iling-Junior switched from Villa to Middlesbrough, then Bologna, then West Brom and finally Pisa before landing at Bolton last week to add some pace and power to their attack.
Plunged into a debut off the bench against Preston North End, Schumacher is confident fans will soon see the best of the 22-year-old, who cost Villa £12million from Juventus just two years ago.
“He didn’t even manage to train on Friday, he was still doing media and signing his contract,” he told The Bolton News. “So we threw him in at the deep end, really.
“It was probably a bit of a risk, I had Kiliane, who I probably should have put on a bit earlier, because he's a bit more up to speed.
“But we made that decision and it was what it was.
“But Sam has looked really strong this week.
“I had a good chat with him yesterday to see how he was finding it.
“He feels like he is getting to grips with the intensity of the training.
“It is a bit similar to Lewis (Brunt) and Ryan (Hardie) because how we train is completely different to how Wrexham train, so just getting their legs and getting their lungs going to how we work is a different challenge for them.
“The more time we get to spend with them, the better that day will be and the better their performances will be.
“It's been a good week, and I'm glad it's been a clear week, as is next week going into Lincoln, because it gives us really good training time.
“He has had a really interesting career and I commend him for going to take those challenges on.
“But I also said that I feel as though he needs to find a home, even though he is going to be a loan player.
“We consider any loan players that we bring in as one of our own, because they're just as important as somebody we've just given a new contract to.
“He bought into that, liked the sound of it.
“I said that we wouldn’t be bringing you in if we didn't believe you have attributes to make our team stronger.
“So that's what we think he's got; he's certainly got the talent.
“Richie (Kyle) worked with him in England, remembers him from playing in the youth teams in England.
“He is a really talented lad.
“We have just got to find a way for him to produce it regularly and play regular minutes in a position that really suits him.”
Wanderers go to QPR this weekend with Schumacher hoping to build on the positive start made against Preston.
“We have to play with intensity, we have to be aggressive without the ball, and try and be positive when we have it,” he said. “That won't change.
“What we have to be mindful of is that QPR play slightly differently than Preston.
“They have more movement and more rotation, and a bit different sort of look on the front line.
“We have to be ready to adapt to that challenge and go there with a plan to try and stop them hurting us.”