Louie Barry’s Aston Villa future examined: What’s next for forgotten wonderkid?
Louie Barry was once hailed as the next big thing in football and is now back on loan at Stockport County.
Aston Villa have had high hopes for Barry over the last few years, and they were amplified after his time with Stockport.
The 22-year-old scored 25 goals in 46 appearances there, while also adding six assists to his name.
That form ultimately led to him getting a move on loan to the Championship with both Hull and Sheffield United, but after 3 appearances, he failed to register a goal involvement, and thus returned to Stockport.
Barry has yet to make an appearance since his move back to League One, which begs the question as to what comes next for him.
Does Louie Barry have a future at Aston Villa?
Barry has been with the Villans since 2021, and for him to have made just one senior appearance here in the five years since speaks volumes about where he is in the pecking order.
In theory, a move back to Stockport should allow him the gametime to rediscover his best form that saw him linked with a permanent move to some top Championship clubs and even bottom-half Premier League clubs.
However, if that is to be the case in League One, it unfortunately says a lot about his role at Aston Villa in the future.
Barry turns 23 in June, meaning he will no longer be the wonderkid that everyone became accustomed to, and instead, he will become nothing more than an outcast at Villa Park.
Regardless of what happens between now and the end of the season, all signs point towards an exit from Aston Villa in the summer, and this time, for good.
Aston Villa have clear step to take with Barry this summer
Once he returns from his loan spell at Stockport, Barry will have just two years left on his contract at Aston Villa, with little to no reason to expect a new one.
It means that this summer will likely be the last chance that the Villans get to cash in on him, though they will receive a much lower fee than was expected last time he was linked with an exit.
The good news is that they will almost certainly make a profit on the forward, having signed him for just £880,000 in 2020.
However, when it comes to just how much profit, a lot of that will come down to what he can achieve with Stockport for the rest of the current campaign.
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