Unai Emery outlines plan for player who’s now in advanced talks over West Brom transfer
Unai Emery has already made clear his plans for Jamaldeen Jimoh-Aloba as the youngster closes in on a move to West Brom.
West Brom are in talks to sign Jimoh-Aloba from Villa in what would be their third winter signing, following the arrivals of Max O’Leary and Danny Imray.
Respected West Brom fan account EyaWeGew provided an update on Saturday, suggesting that a deal is now “very advanced”.
However, the 19-year-old will definitely not be signed in time for Saturday’s relegation six-pointer with Portsmouth at Fratton Park.
It is still an exciting transfer on the face of it for Albion, though, with Jimoh-Aloba clearly highly thought of at Villa Park.
Unai Emery shares what he wants from Jamaldeen Jimoh-Aloba
Jimoh-Aloba is already well accustomed to life at The Hawthorns, having spent a decade on West Brom’s books prior to moving to Villa in 2023.
The young attacker has made six senior appearances for the Villans to date, half of those coming this season.
The most recent of those came on Thursday as he scored his firsts senior goal in Villa’s 3-2 comeback win over RB Salzburg.
That was the winning goal and saw Jimoh-Aloba make the headlines, but it is likely to be his final Villa appearance for a while.
Villa boss Unai Emery was asked about the England Under-20s international after the match and outlined his plans.
“Maybe he’s going on loan,” Emery said. “We spoke this morning, about the possibility to play consistently during the next four months in a club outside from here, and continue his process. This is the plan with him.“
Emery, whose comments were made prior to Albion’s interest in Jimoh-Aloba being made public, clearly expects the teenager to get regular minutes at The Hawthorns.
However, as we saw recently with Toby Collyer, that is not always a guarantee when a player joins from a Premier League club.
West Brom fans need reality check over imminent Jimoh-Aloba deal
You would imagine the vast majority of West Brom fans would be excited about news of Jimoh-Aloba returning to the club, but that is not the case.
Many are moaning that, like with Samuel Iling-Junior, this is not a deal that necessarily benefits West Brom in the long term.
While that is true – Jimoh-Aloba will return to Aston Villa in three months’ time – this is still a move that could massively aid Albion.
Jimoh-Aloba was on the scoresheet in a Europa League game this week and clearly has something about him.
Eric Ramsay could do with all the help he can get right now, and any signing has to be considered a positive.
With two new signings in the space of a couple of days, assuming this deal goes through, the Baggies’ squad has been upgraded in a flash.
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