Assessing Ayina - Can Loick make Town breakthrough in 23/24

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Zak Armitage, Feature Writer

Twitter: @SportWriterZak

Loick Ayina is one to watch, of that there’s no doubt.

Is he Town’s next breakthrough star? Let’s find out… 

In December 2020, I was fortunate enough to attend a Youth Cup game between Town and Newcastle in lockdown. Once the disorientating nature of being back in a football stadium had worn off, I decided to focus heavily on the players on the pitch. Who would impress me. Who I saw making a breakthrough in the future. 

On that evening, four players stood out to me above the rest. One was Elliott Anderson, who made 22 Premier League appearances for Newcastle last season, helping the North East giants to a Champions League return. The other three were Town’s young French trio, Etienne Camara, Brahima Diarra and Loick Ayina. 

While the former two names of the trio went on to make 20 league outings for Town last season, Loick Ayina was limited to just one short-lived outing in the FA Cup away at Preston where he was taken off after just 38 minutes, as a precaution due to an early yellow card. 

After that game, Ayina was sent to Scotland where at just 19 years old he had to adapt (once again) to a new country, a new league, and a new football culture. A character-building exercise was in waiting for Loick, as was a long-awaited chance to prove his worth in the senior game. 

While his best friends Etienne and Brahima were helping Town in their skirmish against relegation, Loick was some 304.3 miles away (yes, I googled it) helping The Tangerines in their own survival battle under the tutelage of former Terrier Jim Goodwin. 

What stood out to me from watching Loick make his Town bow away at Deepdale in the FA Cup was his eagerness to impress. If anything, he was too eager. He threw himself into tackles, and while it was refreshing to watch his enthusiasm, it seemed inevitable that he’d have succumbed to a second yellow card had Town not made the difficult decision to cut his debut short, bringing him off before halftime. 

I wondered at the time if Town had made the right call bringing him off. After all, the whole point of starting him was to give him his chance and see if he could be a viable option for Town in the second half of last season. Perhaps we could’ve taken that risk and kept him on, even if he would’ve got sent off, I don’t think we’d have done any worse that afternoon, in what was one of many miserable afternoons with Mark Fotheringham at the helm. 

Ironically, Ayina did get sent off on his Dundee United debut after receiving two yellow cards, with that eagerness once again showing. (Maybe MF did make the right call at Deepdale after all!) But would go on to make a further 12 outings for the Scottish outfit after that. In that time, Loick found his form, with a standout performance in a win against Hibernian the highlight of his spell in Scotland. In that game, whoscored gave Ayina a very impressive 7.6 rating. The second-highest of any player on the pitch. With the youngster recording 8 clearances, a 78.6% pass rate, and winning 3 aerial battles, all in an afternoon’s work. Stats that make for happy reading, especially coming from a teenage prospect making just his 7th career appearance. 

That display was one of a handful of strong performances Loick would put in for the Tangerines, and while Dundee United were ultimately relegated from the SPL, their supporters seemed happy with what they’d seen from the Frenchman, with many hoping he would remain at Tannadice beyond the summer. 

For now, that doesn’t seem to be the case with Ayina returning to Canalside for pre-season with Town and with a golden opportunity to impress Neil Warnock over the summer and earn a place in the team at the start of the season. 

Since returning to West Yorkshire, Neil Warnock hasn’t been afraid to move away from the status quo and give chances to players who hadn’t been at the top of the hierarchy prior to his arrival. Josh Koroma is a key reminder of what NW can do with players, and how he can reinvigorate their careers with the use of his renowned man-management skills. 

Another player Warnock took a shine to was Ayina’s good friend and compatriot Brahima Diarra, who Neil was full of praise for last season, with the midfielder playing a big part in Town’s great escape. With that in mind, there’s no reason why Loick Ayina can’t be Neil Warnock’s next success story and become a major player for Town this season. 

Ayina will undoubtedly face competition from Town’s healthy selection of defenders if he’s to breakthrough this season. But the departure of Romoney Crichlow to Peterborough will certainly boost his chances, as will the versatility of two of Town’s other defensive options, Yuta Nakayama and REG, who can both be accommodated in different areas of the pitch. 

I believe that when we see Ayina in pre-season, we’ll see a very different player from the one we saw at Deepdale back in January. His experiences in Scotland will have made him better, both physically and mentally. I believe they’ll have added that extra oomph to his game that was perhaps lacking before. 

While in Scotland, Ayina struck up a partnership with the vastly experienced Charlie Mulgrew, a man who has played against Town a handful of times in the past for Blackburn Rovers. Mulgrew also captained Scotland on several occasions and has played alongside the likes of Virgil Van Dijk during his playing career. He’s a man who oozes pedigree and experience and knows what it’s like to play in the big games, on the big stages. He become somewhat of a mentor to Ayina last season, and spoke highly of him during an interview with the local Dundee outlet The Courier:

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“Loick is (a) really good player. He actually played with a bad knock on his ankle last Saturday, which just shows his character. He is still learning the game but has some really good attributes.

“If he keeps progressing the way he is, Loick will have a great career. It is all down to him, to keep moving forward; keep learning; keep listening.

“I’m doing what I can to help him. He’s still very young so there’s that bit of concentration to work on — I need to keep on him, sometimes — but he reacts well to that.

“I’m really enjoying playing alongside him.”

All in all, it looks like Ayina’s spell in Scotland has done wonders for him. A hit with the fans. A hit with his teammates. And most importantly, a hit on the pitch.

It’s clear that Loick is returning to Town as a different prospect this summer…

One that is hopefully ready to make his mark on the Championship. 

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