Why 'unpredictable' Samuel Iling-Junior can step into big West Brom shoes of £10m man Tom Fellows
There is no doubt Tom Fellows' departure was going to impact Albion.
You would have to be a put naïve to think it wasn't.
To lose someone with the number of assists and level of creativity that the academy graduate had was always going to strike a bit hard.
He left late in the window with a £10m fee - with Albion moving quickly to bring in Samuel Iling-Junior on loan from Aston Villa.
The former Chelsea youngster is a different wide man entirely - he is different footed for a start.
He has different attributes and despite the hope of a 'like for like' replacement for Fellows - it was never going to happen.
Fellows was unique in his own right. A right footed winger who played on the right and loved nothing more than getting chalk on his boots, drifting past his man and crossing.
You don't see those wingers all the time these days.
So going like for like was near impossible. But there is one very big similarity between Fellows and his replacement - which shows that he can very much replace him and be a quality assist in the absence of the academy graduate.
When Fellows burst on the scene, one of the words used more often than not was 'unpredictable'. You didn't know what was going to happen.
In the end, his stock move was that stepover and beating his full back but even when the defender's wised up to it, they still failed to stop him.
Iling-Junior has that unpredictability about him. That goal on Friday night showed that.
Don't get me wrong, he is raw and some other parts of the game on Friday outlined that.
He isn't going to get it right every single time - but it is unpredictable and if his team mates don't know what is going to happen next, then the opposition certainly don't.
Some sections of the fanbase have kind of been critical to the winger without him having played much - which is slightly unfair. But I do think that is born out of the frustration of losing Fellows.
But they have brought in a quality replacement - and Friday showed there is no reason why he can't go and replicate what the departed Albion young star did before him.
