Louie Barry must now impress Unai Emery as Aston Villa sanctions loan deal
Louie Barry surely has one last chance to impress Unai Emery after Aston Villa sanctioned a loan back to Stockport County.
The Englishman began pre-season in the Villans’ squad, scoring late on against Walsall to confirm a 3-0 win.
Since then he has featured in one other friendly despite Villa coming unstuck against Colombus Crew and RB Leipzig.
With that being said, it wasn’t particularly a surprise that the 21-year-old saw a loan return to League One outfit sanctioned.
A lengthy injury layoff ruined his campaign for last season as County were promoted from League Two, but now Barry will have a chance to impress again higher up the ladder in the EFL.
The Villans have sanctioned a new loan and have also revealed, via their official website on 2 August, that the versatile forward has signed a new contract.
But you can’t help but feel the new deal might be just a safeguard move for a future sale.
Louie Barry on last Aston Villa chance
It isn’t often that the signing of a 16-year-old is met by so much fanfare but that was certainly the case for Barry in 2020.
The local lad and Villa fan has not quite yet shown the full potential many dreamed of when move to Villa from Barcelona.
There is no doubt that he has impressed at times on different loan spells with Stockport and Swindon Town in particular.
But now that Champions League football is coming to Villa Park, he needs to step up massively to have any hope of being a regular feature under Emery.
Despite featuring in the first two pre-season games under the Spaniard, the fact he is now 21 and been allowed to play in the third tier suggests Villa might not fully believe he will step up to the first team.
With Ollie Watkins unlikely to be dethroned as the main striker any time soon and Cameron Archer back at the club following Sheffield United’s relegation to the second tier the chances to make the breakthrough are pretty scarce.
It does certainly seem to suggest that the new contract is a way to maintain his value should be impress for Stockport.
Of course, there is the possibility that he impresses enough to earn an opportunity at a club he loves so dearly. It does, though, feel very much like last-chance saloon.
In other Aston Villa news, Morgan Gibbs-White could hand Emery a headache after a new summer transfer update at Villa Park
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