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Kevin Toner


smetrov

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I like his spirit so I hope he's part of the squad next season. Not overly impressed just yet but given we've only seen a handful of games with him and him being introduced at this rancid point in time I will reserve my judgement. 

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Walsall Football Club are delighted to announce the loan signing of Aston Villa defender, Kevin Toner, until January 2017. The 20-year old Irishman becomes Jon Whitney’s 14th signing of the summer and makes the move across the West Midlands to bolster the clubs defensive options.

“I’m delighted to have got it all sorted and I can’t wait to get going, “said Toner, who will wear number 32. “I want to get out and play football and when the Gaffer said he wanted me to come here I was delighted.

“I’ve played here a few times with Villa under 21’s so I know the stadium as well which helps.

“But I’m not coming here just to make the numbers up. I want to do well. I want to help the team and help the boys.

“My loan at Kidderminster was a bit of an eye opener because you’re so used to the perfect pitches and the perfect everything.

“Coming here feels a bit more like home.”

Toner’s career began with his hometown side Ashbourne United before making the move to Home Farm in 2010. Following a string of impressive displays in Ireland, he joined Aston Villa Academy two years later where he continued his development. The move to the Banks’s will be his second loan spell away from the Villa having featured six times in a loan move to Kidderminster Harriers last season. The left-sided centre-back returned to his parent club in January and captained the under 21s side who played their home games at the Banks’s Stadium. The all action defender was handed his senior debut three months later, replacing Micah Richards in a 4-2 home defeat to Southampton and went on to make a further three Premier League appearances against Watford, Newcastle and Arsenal before the end of the season.

“Kevin is an aggressive, front foot defender who also has a lot of quality on the ball,” Jon Whitney added. “I’ve brought him in to bolster our defensive options which we’ve been short of over the last few weeks.

“He’s someone we’ve been monitoring for over a month now and I know he’s highly thought of at Aston Villa.

“I’m sure he’ll be a really good addition to the group and offers us some natural balance being a left footer and being able to play at left-back.

“I think the way we do things here can help him with this development and hopefully we can be successful together.”

Toner has been capped eight times by the Republic of Ireland under-19s.

Saddlers Website
 

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4 minutes ago, The Fun Factory said:

Apparently has now returned back to Villa. How well did he do at the Saddlers? From what I briefly saw of him last season I think he could do ok for us.

I was messaging a few Walsall fans on Twitter earlier and they seemed very pleased that the loan has ended.

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Looks like he may be more likely to get a game with us than he was with them towards the end of his loan spell. Made 20 appearances with them and 15 on the trot up until being taken off at half time against Southend in late November. Welcome back Kevin!

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Think he'd be best to go out on loan to a league 2 team this time. He looked out of his depth, not necessarily because he won't make it but more with the physical demands of lower league football, especially in defence. Walsall have been lucky to have some very good defenders for their league over the years so he is also probably compared to these and that won't help. 

If we could send him to someone like Notts County, who are in desperate need of new players and especially defenders, that could be a good move. Grealish I'm sure would endorse the club although a lot has changed since he was there. The expectation levels would be to simply not be as bad as the current lot so wouldn't take much. 

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