Aston Villa: Fans react to 16-year-old’s arrival from Holland

Many Aston Villa fans have reacted to the signing of 16-year-old Sil Swinkels from Dutch side Vitesse Arnhem.

With the 2019/2020 season now over, Villa boss Dean Smith is expected to bring in a number of new faces to Villa Park in a bid to find some consistency and form which was infrequent over the course of the last 12 months.

A final day draw with West Ham United saw the Claret and Blue side remain in the Premier League through to next season..

With transfer gossip starting to be heard in various media outlets, a claim made by Dutch side Vitesse has said that Swinkels has moved to Villa.

Sil Swinkels verruilt de academie van Vitesse voor @AVFCOfficial

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 De verdediger gaat in Engeland spelen in de Onder 18

🤝 Good luck, Sil! #Vitesse pic.twitter.com/7N5SXo1nyw

— Vitesse (@MijnVitesse) August 3, 2020

Swinkels, who has been featuring for Vitesse’s under-17 side, is expected to head straight into Villa’s under-18 setup.

The young defender has already made two appearances for his country, appearing for the Netherlands under-15 side.

Reacting via Twitter account @villareport, fans gave their opinion on the arrival of Swinkels. Whilst some were positive about the arrival, suggesting it is good to be investing in youth, others were more worried about the fact that it wasn’t a first team arrivals – probably due to the fact that they only narrowly escaped relegation last term and therefore fans feel they must make improvements.

Indeed, one even said ‘this doesn’t look like Benrahma’ alluding to the Brentford man who has been linked with the Villans.

Great, another youth player villa will improve and promote, then he be off for free to a club that will reap the benefits 🤔🙄
Classic villa 🤔

— Claire ellis-m (@Claireellism2) August 3, 2020

👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 lovely!! I believe in investing in the academy & talented youth from around the world. Scouts that recognize big talent & not just talent… #Avfc

— Amo Cartwright (@CartwrightAmo) August 3, 2020

The strategy is to develop young talent that can progress to the first team, if by 21 they aren’t appearing regularly then they will have failed. Dortmund have a strategy where they have to produce 1 starter & 2 bench/squad players every year, hasn’t harmed them.

— SouthLondonVillan (@cljd73) August 3, 2020