Aston Villa’s £12k-p/w starlet’s worth has increased by 161%.
The academy graduate had a productive season on loan in the Championship.
Throughout the summer transfer season, Aston Villa head coach Unai Emery and sporting director Monchi were brutal in allowing a number of players to leave the club.
This summer, who left Aston Villa?
Jed Steer and Ashley Young were released when their contracts expired at the end of the 2022/23 season, with the latter joining Premier League rivals Everton.
However, the club also approved the permanent transfers of four academy graduates following their loan experiences in the Championship last season.
Jaden Philogene, Cameron Archer, Aaron Ramsey, and Keinan Davis were all moved on, to Hull City, Sheffield United, Burnley, and Udinese respectively, instead of being offered the chance to showcase their quality for Emery’s team over the months to come.
The deal to sell Archer to the Blades was a particularly profitable one as Villa reportedly raked in a fee of £18.5m for the player they brought through their youth set-up.
Tim Iroegbunam could be the next in line to be a similar success story for the club’s academy after his impressive spell on loan with Queens Park Rangers last season.
The central midfielder, who is currently out with an unspecified injury, caught the eye in the Championship with Villa appears to have struck gold as his market value has soared in 2023 as a result.
How much was Tim Iroegbunam worth last year?
At the end of 2022, Football Transfers rated the 20-year-old’s expected transfer value (xTV) at €2.3m (£1.9m). This was largely as a result of his academy displays and limited first-team outings for Villa prior to his loan with QPR.
During the 2021/22 campaign, Iroegbunam made three Premier League appearances and played four times in the EFL Trophy for the U21 side.
He made 2.4 tackles and interceptions per match and won an impressive 80% of his individual duels in his three top-flight appearances, while demonstrating his defensive ability for the young squad with 4.8 tackles and interceptions per match in four Football League Trophy games.
The precocious kid, who began his youth career with West Bromwich Albion, also appeared for the Villans academy that season, making 15 Premier League 2 matches.
Last season, how did Tim Iroegbunam fare?
His appearances for Villa’s first team earned the superb enforcer a loan transfer to Championship club QPR in the summer of 2022, where he went on to play 32 league matches.
Over the course of the season, he made 2.8 tackles and interceptions per game and scored two goals from the center of the field as the England U20 international continued to demonstrate his exceptional defensive instincts.
John McGinn (2.6) and Jacob Ramsey (2.7) both made a similar number of tackles and interceptions per match for Villa in the Premier League during that period, which shows that the young gem is producing solid numbers in that department.
It was his first experience of playing senior football on a regular basis and he was able to stand up to the physical test of the second tier with a ground duel success rate of 50% to go along with his multiple interventions each game.
How much is Tim Iroegbunam worth now?
His performances for QPR have resulted in his market value soaring up to €6m (£5.1m) and this means that his valuation has rocketed up by 161% since the turn of the year.
This shows that the £12k-per-week earner is a player who is on the way up and that makes him a potentially valuable asset for Villa to either cash in on or utilise within their first-team set-up in the future.
Archer is a brilliant example of how the club can use academy players to generate cash to strengthen the senior squad, particularly if the player is not deemed to be good enough for Emery’s side.
The England U21 international was sent out on his first EFL loan during the second half of the 2021/22 campaign and caught the eye with an average Sofascore rating of 6.83 alongside seven goals and one assist in 20 Championship appearances for Preston North
That spell at Deepdale provided him with valuable senior experience of playing against professionals week-in-week-out that he then used to become a star on loan with Middlesbrough under Michael Carrick’s management last season.
Archer had a superb Sofascore rating of 7.11 in 20 appearances for the club this year, scoring 11 goals and providing six assists as they advanced to the play-off semi-finals before losing to Coventry City.
Meanwhile, only Ollie Watkins (15) scored more than six league goals for Villa last season, and only Ramsey (seven) made more than six assists.
These figures demonstrate that the English kid was able to flourish during his second loan term away from Villa Park, which prompted Sheffield United to splurge the cash to purchase him on a permanent basis to lead the line for them in the Premier League
Villa may come to regret selling him, given that the brilliant striker has already scored once in two top-flight games for the Blades, but there is no doubt that turning an academy player into £18.5m is a superb piece of business that deserves respect.
If the Villans can find him the ideal loan during the second part of the 2023/24 season, Iroegbunam could follow in Archer’s footsteps. His stint at QPR provided him with a foundation of experience at that level, which could perhaps allow him to advance at another team next year.
At the age of 20, he has lots of opportunity to grow and improve in the months and years ahead, and another six months could allow him to continue his upward trajectory, as seen by his skyrocketing market value throughout 2023.
As a result, the promising prospect, who was once described as “impressive” by former manager Michael Beale, is the next jewel off the production line for Villa and could either be a future star for Emery’s first team or provide the Spanish manager with more funds to work with if they are able to cash in on him, as Archer did.
They have already struck gold with their efforts over the last five years, but a huge sale in a few years would undoubtedly see them hit the jackpot.
