Ollie Westbury sat down with Jonny Drury to discuss Shrewsbury Town's signing of highly rated Aston Villa youngster Tommi O'Reilly.
Salop announced the signing of O'Reilly on Thursday - after the move was exclusively revealed by the Shropshire Star earlier this week.
Ollie looks at the signing, the excitement around it and whether it will set the tone for other loan signings Salop will be targetting.
Salop announced the signing of O'Reilly on Thursday - after the move was exclusively revealed by the Shropshire Star earlier this week.
Ollie looks at the signing, the excitement around it and whether it will set the tone for other loan signings Salop will be targetting.
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SportsTranscript
00:00All eight news this week that Shrewsbury have signed Aston Villa youngster Tommy O'Reilly
00:14is going to come in on loan from the Premier League club. Music to the ears, I'm sure,
00:19of Salop fans who are eagerly awaiting more signings, more bodies to come through the
00:23door. But just want to get your reaction to this signing, really. Premier League youngster
00:27coming in. We saw a couple last year. Is this the type of signing that we're probably
00:31going to see between now and the end of the window? I know Shrewsbury will max out their
00:36loans. Is this sort of a sign of what's to come?
00:39It feels like it. It feels like there's a lot of importance being placed on the loan
00:43market. It's something that we expected and we thought would happen. And I suppose now
00:47we're actually seeing that. But yeah, Tommy O'Reilly through the door, season-long loan,
00:54really highly, highly rated by Aston Villa. I think he signed a four-year contract earlier
01:02in the season before going out. I think it was Real Union who are Unai Emery's kind of
01:07club. I think he's a part owner in that. And yeah, clearly a talented footballer. I gather
01:15comparisons to, I've heard different people say comparisons to Phil Foden and to Harvey
01:20Elliott from Liverpool. Left-footed player, likes to carry the ball. Exclusively revealed
01:26by the shops you start on Wednesday afternoon that there was interest. And then picked up
01:34by the Athletic as well too, that he was set to join on a season's long loan. It's his
01:42first major loan, but it's an exciting one. It's one that when I first heard about it,
01:48I was like, let's hope, let's keep our fingers crossed that they can get that one done. But
01:54I think it's an exciting one. He's a talented young footballer and let's hope that he can
01:58really hit the ground running in blue and amber this season.
02:02Talk about the importance of the loans there. I know Mickey Moore spoke about it in the
02:04past and kind of other clubs say a lot of loan business to bigger clubs or from bigger
02:10clubs maybe doesn't happen until later in the window. But this is kind of an example
02:14of it happening earlier. O'Reilly is a player who's at the moment probably not going to
02:18threaten Villa's first team. So there's no need for them to keep him there. Do you get
02:21the sense or do you understand if Shrewsbury are going to try and do this with other clubs,
02:26other Premier League clubs, try and get players of this sort of mould, ones that they can
02:31probably get a little bit earlier rather than wait until that deadline?
02:33Yeah, I think there was a keenness from all parties to try and get this one over the line
02:38as early as possible. I think Shrewsbury wanted to get Tommy O'Reilly through the door
02:44because I think they're quite excited about him as a player. And I don't think they wanted
02:51the move to be kind of gate crashed by anybody else. And obviously the longer you leave it
02:56without him signing, the more chance there is of that happening. But I think from all
03:01parties, I think from the players party too, I think they were keen to get him to town
03:05to kind of meet his team-mates, perhaps play in the occasional game in pre-season. I'm
03:11not sure whether it will be available on Saturday or not. But yeah, we will have to wait and
03:17see. But yeah, it makes sense. The problem is that each signing has different circumstances
03:24attached to it and each club will be in a different position. Obviously Paul Hurst got
03:29links with Aston Villa. So we'll just have to wait and see. But for me it's a positive
03:35one. That's for sure.