Mariners keen on full back Koiki
Burnley’s under-23 left-back Ali Koiki has been training with Grimsby Town, has played in a pre-season friendly for them and their manager Michael Jolley is very interested in taking him on loan for the 2018/19 season.
I can’t say I’m surprised that Grimsby are interested in one of our younger players. Their manager Jolley was our under-23 coach until leaving in June last year to take over as manager of Swedish club AFK Eskilstuna before moving to Grimsby just over four months ago and leading them to a very good finish to the season.
He will know a number of our players and, such is his relationship with manager Sean Dyche and other staff at Turf Moor, I was almost expecting a potential link up between the two clubs in terms of the development of younger players.
Jolley has already signed central defender Alex Whitmore this summer and news surfaced yesterday that Koiki, who has recently signed a new deal at Burnley, has been training with them and played in a friendly against Cleethorpes Town.
Jolley told Grimsby Live: “He’s been with us for a few days, and it’s a chance for us to look at him and him to look at us. Obviously he’s a Burnley player and we’re really grateful to Burnley for allowing him to come and train with us for a short while and play the game on Saturday.”
He added: “We’ll speak to Burnley and Ali, and see if it’s something to take forward.”
Koiki has been with Burnley for two years. He was the left-back in the youth team in that 2016/17 season, when we finished runners-up in the Youth Alliance League, whilst last season he was a regular in the under-23 team as they embarked on a first ever season in the Professional Development League.
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