Fulham podcaster Sammy James has been sharing his praise for Cottagers right-back Ola Aina and his latest performance for the west London club in their recent 1-0 win over Sheffield United in the Premier League.
This comes after James recently hosted the latest episode of The Athletic’s Fulham-themed podcast Fulhamish where he spoke about a number of topics concerning Scott Parker’s side.
On the subject of Aina, who started and played the full game against Chris Wilder’s side over the weekend, James had this to say about the defender. (8.36)
He said: “He is fast becoming one of my favourite players on this team. He is a bit of a Premier League version of Denis Odoi, he can play on the left, can play on the right. I think he’s pretty solid defensively.
“I didn’t think that earlier in the season when I remember he had that game against Everton and he had a literal nightmare, but since then, I think he’s pretty solid defensively and his attacking output isn’t so bad either.
“He had a good shot [against Sheffield United] obviously scored against Burnley, scored earlier in the season against West Brom and he’s just Mr Versatile, really, and always doing a job for us whenever he’s put in the side.”
Fulham signed Aina back in September on a season-long loan deal from Italian club Torino. Since then, the 24-year-old, who is currently valued at £6.3 million, has made 23 appearances for Fulham in which he has managed to score two goals and provide one assist along the way (per Transfermarkt).
TIF Thoughts on Sammy James’ comments on Aina…
Given how Aina made two key passes and managed to earn himself an impressive match rating of 7.43/10 for his performance against the Blades, the highest of any Fulham defender that played in the game, it’s clear to see why the defender is rapidly becoming one of James’ favourite players at the club.
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Moving forward, if Aina can continue putting in strong performances for Fulham from now until the end of the season, there’s every opportunity that the club could try and sign him on a permanent deal from Torino, which would be a good move for them in our view.