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2023/24 Loan Army Roundup

Another season comes to end, but before it does, I wanted to give a quick roundup of how all of our loanees did this season.

Men's Team

Morgan Sanson (CM - OGC Nice)

  • 4 goals and 3 assists in a season where Nice got to the quarters of the French cup and finished 5th in Ligue 1, meaning they will play in the Conference League next season.

  • Already completed permanent move to OGC Nice.

Philippe Coutinho (AM - Al Duhail)

  • Only 3 goals and 2 assists in 16 league appearances, in a season where Al Duhail finished 6th out of 12.

Leander Dendoncker (DM, Napoli)

  • Only made 3 cameos from the bench. Not a good time for him it seems.

Viljami Sinisalo (GK - Exeter City)

  • Has been Exeter's first choice keeper all season in a season they finished 13th - comfortably mid-table.

  • Conceded 59 goals, and kept 13 clean sheets in 45 league games, which I would say is pretty good.

  • Picked up 6 awards at their end of season awards, including Fan's POTY and Player's POTY!

Filip Marschall (GK - MK Dons)

  • Loaned out in January. Played 6 league and 3 cup games without a clean sheet. Conceded 5 to Sutton United in the play off semi-final 2nd leg.

  • Highlight of his season has to be his full Villa debut in the 1-1 draw with Zjrinski Mostar.

Women's Team

Olivia McLoughlin (DM - Rangers)

  • Loaned since January.

  • 6 clean sheets in 15 appearances, as Rangers came a close second to Celtic, who won the title with a goal in the 90th minute this weekend.

Freya Gregory (CM - Reading)

  • Loaned first half of the season, scoring 2 goals in 11 appearances.

  • Recalled in January.

Academy

Kaine Kesler Hayden (RWB - Plymouth Argyle)

  • Loaned at start of the season. Made 24 appearances for Plymouth, providing 2 assists, and keeping 5 clean sheets.

  • Recalled in January, but only made a few late appearances from the bench for Villa, which I am sure is less than he was expecting or hoping for.

Lamare Bogarde (DM - Bristol Rovers)

  • Loaned at start of the season. Made 14 appearances, keeping 3 clean sheets. Recalled in January.

Chisom Afoka (AM - Bradford City)

  • Loaned first half of the season, but recalled in January after making only 2 appearances.

  • Made 13 appearances for the U21s this season.

Louie Barry (ST - Stockport County)

  • Scored 9 and assisted 4 in 20 league appearances, but unfortunately missed most of the season due to a hamstring injury. Nevertheless a great shift in a season where Stockport came out Champions of League Two.

Seb Revan (DF - Rotherham)

  • Made 36 appearances, keeping 5 clean sheets, scoring 1 goal and providing 2 assists.

  • Named Rotherham's Young Player of the Season.

Oliwier Zych (GK - Puszcza Niepołomice)

  • Made 25 league appearances, conceding 35 and keeping 6 clean sheets.

  • Contract expires this summer.

Kerr Smith (CB - St Johnstone)

  • Loaned in January, but only made 3 appearances before picking up a hamstring injury and returning to Villa for treatment.

Ben Chrisene (LB - Blackburn Rovers)

  • Loaned in January. Seems to have impressed, making 16 appearances in only half a season, keeping 5 clean sheets.

Teddy Rowe (CM - Gloucester City)

  • Loaned out in January. Made 18 appearances, scoring 1 and assisting 2. Unfortunately Gloucester City ended the season being relegated.

Rico Richards (FW - Stockport County)

  • Loaned in January. Scored 1 in 11 appearances.

Josh Feeney (CB - Real Union)

  • Loaned in January. Made 6 appearances keeping 1 clean sheet.

Tommi O'Reilly (AM - Real Union)

  • Loaned out in January but only made 2 appearances.

Lino Sousa (LWB - Plymouth Argyle)

  • Bought from Arsenal in January and immediately loaned out. Made 8 appearances.

Kosta Nedeljkovic (RB - Red Star Belgrade)

  • Bought from and immediately loaned back to Red Star in January. Made 12 appearances in the Serbian league this season before picking up a knee injury in February.

Bonus

Finn Azaz (AM - Plymouth Argyle)

  • Loaned first half of the season, scoring 7 and assisting 3 for Plymouth. Easily one of their best players.

  • Recalled and sold to Middlesbrough in January for £2.5m.

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Sinisalo was Exeters player of the season and supporters player of the season. For a GK, that's pretty feckin awesome.

u/SecretApe avatar

Their coach said Sinisalo is going to have a mega career as well. One to keep

Apparently Celtic are looking at him after Hart’s departure. Loan to a club like that is a great way to get him big game experience

u/jay1891 avatar

Even a sale with buy backs to give him a few years to develop with Martinez and Gauci in front of him

u/Chrissmith921 avatar

Loan him, there’s a 1 in 4 chance we play them in the CL

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u/bistoha2 avatar

I'm an Exeter fan so I can expand on Sinisalo if you like. In the previous season Sinisalo had been unfortunate during his stint at Burton so our fans were initially worried about how he might perform. His first appearance for us in a friendly was poor but since then he's been unbelievable. He's extremely vocal and has a quiet confidence about himself at all times, you can tell he has real belief in his abilities which is even more impressive when you consider what he went through at Burton.

Our manager Gary Caldwell likes to retain possession and move the ball to create opportunities so Sinisalo got a lot of practice with his feet, something he made clear progress on throughout the season. You rarely if ever feel unconformatble when the ball is passed to him and he's good enough with both feet to get himself out of trouble if the pass is hit to his 'weak' footed side.

He's an athlete and isn't bullied easily during set pieces, I wouldn't call him dominant from set pieces but not many keepers are, he has brilliant reflexes though so if a shot is directed at him from a set piece he's flexible enough to react with his hands or feet. During our winless run before Christmas he was consistently one of our best players if not the best player in the team.

Like Martinez for Villa he's a GK who's impact on a game is larger than it has any right to be, he's passionate and celebrates like a lunatic when we score and bollocks his teammates when they've made him make a save he shouldn't have needed to. His penalty save against Wycombe in stoppage time to give us our first win in 16 games was a defining moment of our season but he's the sort of GK you have belief in when a penalty is about to be taken.

Like any keeper he'll make the odd mistake here or there but off the top of my head in the 50 games he played for us I can only think of one or two.

Thanks so much for that, really great to hear as I know next to nothing about him

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u/Lgprimes avatar

I think he probably could have been our number two this season. Would love to see him get a go this summer.

Oh thanks, I missed that. Will add that in!

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u/adhdmarmot avatar

Sinisalo won just about every award going at Exeter's end of season thing. Players player, fans player etc. A move up to the championship, or a top League abroad should be on the cards.

Thanks! Updated.

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Friend is a Stockport fan, said that Barry was sensational for them. Could get a decent fee from a championship team in the summer or another loan but I wouldn’t think he’s gonna make it into our side any time soon.

I watched Stockport a bunch and can confirm Barry tore that league to shreds.

u/loveonthedole avatar

Their owner Mark Scott has said that they're looking at buying him. Whether or not they'll be anywhere near our valuation is another matter, but I wouldn't be completely surprised to see him end up there.

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u/Villaboy78 avatar

Top update that OP 👌

Ben Chrisene is the main one I could see stepping up relatively soon. Versatile and defensively sound

seb revan voted young player of the year at Rotherham. i believe he was included in championship team of the week once as well.

oh cool, thanks, updated the post

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Not shocked Donk barely played for Napoli tbh. Idk why he wouldn't have looked at a lower table PL team or a lesser club than Napoli at least.

u/GameplayerStu avatar

They signed him then sacked the manager who wanted him

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u/adhdmarmot avatar

I could genuinely see Dendoncker playing a role at the club next year. His sale value is going to be negligible, his wages aren't that high (I think?) he has a lot of experience, including in europe, and internationally. We're very thin at DM, and I honestly think the fact that Tim barely played despite Kamara's injury shows Emery doesn't trust him to play a big role next year.

Of course I could also see him quietly just being moved on for a negligible fee. About the only guy coming back (except Nedeljkovic who isn't really coming back) that I could see being a part of the squad.

u/TonyDarvo avatar

Emery let Dendonker go on loan with only Tim as backup to Kamara even though he clearly doesn't rate Tim now. Emery had worked with Tim on the training ground for months before that, and yet he still wanted Dendonker out, even though he clearly didn't trust the alternative. Dendonker is just not good enough on the ball to play CM in that system. He never will be.

I don't even think he's a bad player. For a team that will be without possession for most of the game, and defend deep, he'd be an asset, but he's on big money and not many struggling teams can afford to match that.

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