Leeds ‘looking at signing Louie Barry’ – ‘huge offer to land permanent deal’
Aston Villa plan to loan Louie Barry out to a higher level before testing him in the first-team and are unlikely to let him leave on a permanent deal.
Mick Brown, who worked as a senior scout at Villa Park and remains very well-connected there, exclusively told Football Insider that it would take a “huge” fee for the club to let the 21-year-old leave for good before the window closes.
This comes after Football Insider revealed that Celtic are unlikely to meet Aston Villa’s asking price after seeing a £10million bid rejected earlier this month.
Unai Emery’s side opted to recall the forward from his loan spell at Stockport at the start of the month, and will now look to loan him out to a higher level.
Barry scored 16 goals and provided three assists in 23 games for the League One outfit, and there is now a feeling that he is ready for the step up to Championship football.
Middlesbrough, Leeds and Sheffield Wednesday have all been heavily linked with the forward, but Villa are still weighing up which move would best suit their academy product.
Brown explained that an impactful loan spell with a top Championship outfit would pave the way for him to come into the first-team at Villa Park, but he is not yet ready for that step up.
Louie Barry to leave Aston Villa on loan as permanent bid rejected
Barry remains very highly-rated by Emery after a turbulent start to his career, having left West Brom for Barcelona in 2019 before returning to England with Villa six months later.
However, he has finally found his stride in the English game and Brown, who has a wealth of experience in top-level player recruitment after over a decade at Man United during their most successful period, insisted it won’t be long until he makes his mark for Villa.
“He’s done very well at Stockport,” he told Football Insider.
“Now they’re looking at a higher level, with the likes of Leeds or Middlesbrough looking at him.
“I understand they now want to see how well he performs at that level, and then they’ll make the same judgement again about his quality.
“So if they let him go on loan again now, they’ve got from now until the end of the season to assess him and decide whether he could come into their team.
“By the end of the season they’ll have made a strong judgement about that.
“He’s very highly rated by Villa, I think they see him as a part of their first-team plans eventually.
“I wouldn’t expect him to leave permanently unless there’s a huge offer for him.
“They want to see how he performs in the Championship, and then he can step up and become part of Emery’s team in the future.”
In other news, Aston Villa are racing Newcastle to sign AC Milan star Fikayo Tomori.
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