Back in the summer, Middlesbrough pulled off what has surely turned out to be the best loan signing in the Championship in the form of Ben Doak.
Roll forward half a season and on deadline day they made another eye-catching temporary addition.
Last season, Samuel Iling-Junior was playing regularly for Juventus. Last month, he was scoring in the Champions League for Bolonga.
He wasn’t a player Boro actively targeted at the start of January, mainly because they didn’t envisage a scenario where the 21-year-old would be made available for a Championship loan move.
But when they learnt that it was a possibility, they pounced. And with Aston Villa keen to ensure they selected the right club after his Bologna stint didn’t necessarily go to plan, it’s little surprise they so quickly gave the Boro switch the green light. Villa trust Boro after their handling of Cameron Archer and Aaron Ramsey during their loan spells on Teesside, and saw with Morgan Rogers how quickly and impressively talented youngsters can develop at the Riverside.
For all Boro didn’t expect to be able to sign Iling-Junior this month, they were well aware of the youngster’s qualities and strengths. Chris Jones first watched Iling-Junior in action when Boro’s now head of recruitment was working for Crystal Palace and covering Italy. The winger was playing Juventus’ Under-19s at the time having moved from Chelsea in 2020.
Jones and Boro’s head of football Kieran Scott have also watched the Londoner play for England’s Under-19s. They were struck by his athleticism, versatility and comfort when carrying the ball. He’s said to have been a popular character in every dressing room he’s been in.
He was just 16 when he left Chelsea, picking Juventus over Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain.
“It was all on the table and I just felt like the conversations I had with everyone at Juventus it offered me the best opportunity,” he said in a previous interview with the Telegraph.
“They were very honest with me and I really appreciated that. It was like ‘you do well and we will push you’ and that is what has happened. It’s what I wanted. I heard what I wanted to hear.
“I sat down with my family and we talked about it: do I stay at Chelsea? Or do I take a different path? We decided to take that different path and it has all worked out unbelievably well.”
At Juventus, Iling-Junior quickly and impressively worked his way through the youth ranks and into the first team.
There was an assist on his Champions League debut and a goal on his first Serie A start.
He was training with and learning from the likes of Angel Di Maria.
“It’s the little things. First touches, touches around players if I’m beating my man, and then mentally, they’re winners,” said Iling-Junior of Juventus’s stars in an interview with the Athletic.
“You’ve got to have that winner’s mentality. This club is about winning. They settle for nothing less.”
A few years earlier it was Jamal Musiala who he was looking up to.
“When I was 10, he was the year above me and he would go off and play with boys two or three years older than him,” he said.
“I’d look at him and think, ‘I need to be around him and make sure I either follow in his footsteps or just play with him’.”
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Iling-Junior grew up in Highbury but joined Chelsea when he was eight, making the trip across London with his parents – his mum a nurse and dad a computer engineer – three times a week for training.
“They put everything on the line to get me into training, back home and ready for school the next day and that constant repetition made me realise I had to give 100 per cent,” he told the Telegraph.
Where will he fit into the Boro team?
“He brings almost everything to the table. He can play seven, eleven, a 10 or even in central midfield,” former Chelsea and Tottenham academy coach Saul Isaksson-Hurst previously told the Standard a couple of years ago.
“Samuel brings the full package to the party, he has got everything.
“He is almost like a street footballer with his skill and balance.
“He is a really friendly young gentleman, great-mannered and has a great family. His mentality was to come and work with me when others might have been on a beach to get that bit extra into his game because he is so committed.
“That is the difference between the outliers who really want it. They take that extra step even when they have arrived at one of the biggest clubs in world football. He is not satisfied and knows the hard work has just begun.”
At Boro, Iling-Junior wants to play, win and thrill.
“My goals are high. I want to be a top-class player, winning trophies, being an important part, making people remember, always making people happy. When they see my name I want them to have a smile on their face,” he said in that interview with the Telegraph.
“When I was younger and people would compliment me and say ‘you played well today; you made me happy’ it made me feel good. It’s about winning but it’s also about that as well. I want to win games: I want to win trophies; I want to be a serial winner.”
