Head coach Leonid Slutsky has backed new loan signing Ola Aina to be a success at Hull City in the coming 2017/18 Championship campaign.
Having come in from Chelsea on Tuesday, the 20 year old has already made his Premier League, FA cup and League Cup debuts for his parent club and it’s expected he won’t be the first arrival from Chelsea owing to our head coach’s friendship with Russian Roman Abramovic.
He is of course Slutsky’s first addition to the first team following is arrival and the believes the versatility of the young defender will be an asset moving forward as he can play in both full back positions.
Having lost Josh Tymon to Stoke, and the potential for Andy Robertson to be moving on as well with continuing media speculation of links to Liverpool in particular, obviously Aina will be great cover on the left if needed, but again he’s equally as comfortable on the right.
Speaking to the Official Site following his capture the other day, Slutsky explained that he’d been very impressed when watching Aina perform for Chelsea last season.
‘He is a very good player and versatile, too, because he can play as both a right back and left back. Those are very important positions and I know how he plays very well because I watched him play a lot of times last season.’
Our Russia head coach added.
‘In his first training session with us, he showed us all what a good player he is and what a serious player he can be for us. Ola is the first, and not last, signing this transfer window.’
Speaking more generally about pre season training and the players stepping up their fitness, Slutsky went on to say.
‘The players have worked very hard since day one last week and this really is a very professional group of players. The experienced core is setting a really serious example for the younger players in the group and it is a good mix.’
He went on to say that with players back with us now who weren’t here next week, he can begin work with them and start getting his message over to everyone without just focusing on fitness.
‘We have now started serious preparation in terms of tactics because we have all of our players back that weren’t here last week like Henriksen, Elmohamady and Grosicki. Serious attention is now on tactical exercise and tactical problems. This is really important, especially as we will play some friendly matches while we are here. I feel the programme we have here is the optimal one for us as we look to put our way into the squad. There is some extra work for those players that came back late, too, but I think in three or four days they will be at the same level as everybody else.’
