View: Aston Villa must join Championship trio in race to sign 24-year-old speed machine
Lack of width or attacking tenacity
Bruce is now only three days away from the start of the Championship season and still has just one first-team winger available to him, in Albert Adomah.
Jack Grealish, Ross McCormack and Leandro Bacuna are better preferred elsewhere, while Keinan Davis and Andre Green are unproven in the Championship.
Signing Barrow, who is a proven Premier League performer, would not only add quality to the Aston Villa side but cover too.