Louie Barry rubbed shoulders with Jude Bellingham and was labelled the new ‘Jamie Vardy’ by Jurgen Klopp… after shining in League One, the ex-Barca starlet looks ready for big stage
Louie Barry is once more a footballer in demand. Back at Aston Villa after a goal-packed loan spell at Stockport County with a new long-term deal on the table and Unai Emery keen to examine his talent before calling the next stage of his development.
Barry is hoping this is his breakthrough opportunity at Villa Park, four years after the goal scored on what remains his only appearance for the club in an FA Cup tie against Liverpool, after which Jurgen Klopp hailed him the ‘next Jamie Vardy’.
Back then, he was a teenager accustomed to high praise. Barcelona lauded him as ‘one of the pearls of English football’ when they lured him out of West Bromwich Albion’s excellent academy at the age of 16 and made him the first from these shores to step into the hothouse of La Masia.
Barry was then a centre forward with exhilarating pace, movement, and dribbling ability, and leading scorer in England youth teams featuring Jude Bellingham, Jamal Musiala and Harvey Elliott.
Barcelona beat a rush of Europe’s biggest clubs to sign him, but the move soured after a regime change inside La Masia. Those who convinced him to sign made way for others less keen on the idea that an English player should be their next star.
Bellingham and Barry, born in Birmingham environs eight days apart in June 2023, were close friends. And Bellingham’s decision to reject Barcelona among others for Borussia Dortmund when he left Birmingham City would have been informed by Barry’s experience in Catalunya.
Louie Barry will be hoping to break into the Aston Villa team after being recalled from loan
Unai Emery suggested he could be loaned to a higher level after thriving with Stockport
Former Barcelona wonderkid Barry, now 21, has only made one appearance for Aston Villa
Five years after Villa invested a million euros to bring him home to Birmingham, his future will be one of the most intriguing aspects of this January transfer window.
Barry the wonderkid has matured into a man at Stockport, the fifth port of call on a three-and-a-half-year cycle of loan moves. After the good, bad and indifferent, Stockport worked like a dream for him, restoring lost confidence.
Boss Dave Challinor took to him, trusted him, worked out his best position in a system that suited him, off the left flank with freedom to drift inside onto his right foot or make runs into the space behind with his destructive pace and clinical finishing.
His goals made him a club legend in less than 50 appearances. He scored nine last season, despite missing more than five months through injury as they were promoted from League Two. This season, he has 15 in 23 in League One. Only Mo Salah and Erling Haaland have more in the top four divisions.
Perhaps most importantly, Barry has developed physically. His mate Bellingham was ready for men’s football at the age of 16 and did not look back from the moment he stepped into the first team at Birmingham City.
Barry was not but he is now. His physical output is producing the sort of numbers to make Premier League recruitment experts sit up and take note. He can cover 12 kilometres in a game, a thousand metres at high-speed with a top sprint speed close to 10 metres per second.
His temperament is good and there is reason to believe those six months at Barcelona have been beneficial in an unexpected way. Not only refining his technique and learning tactically to play in a system akin to Emery’s but also playing regularly against teams who pack their defences and sit deep.
Still, the leap from League One to the Premier League is huge. Morgan Rogers, another who hails from the West Brom academy, joined Villa at 21 from Middlesbrough, this time last year, and taken the step from the Championship in his stride.
He has played for Villa in friendlies but the jump to the Premier League is gigantic
Jaden Philogene hoped to make an impact after returning to Villa but may be loaned out again
Unai Emery could throw Barry into action against West Ham in the FA Cup on Friday
He did not spend long with Barcelona but it may have benefited him more than he thought
Jaden Philogene on his return to Villa Park at 22 after a scintillating season at Hull City has not had quite the same impact. Sam Iling-Junior signed at 21 from Juventus last summer but Emery had a look and loaned him back to Italy at Bologna.
Young players are PSR (Profit & Sustainability Rules) assets in the modern age, useful to trade and balance the books, which complicates life when they are trying to establish a foothold for an elite career.
What happens next for Barry will be fascinating. Plenty of clubs in the Championship are interested in his firepower. They will be lining up if Emery decides he should be made available on loan. And that might make for an interesting encounter with West Brom, where some will still feel aggrieved about losing him for a pittance.
Stockport of course would love to take him back. Challinor will look for clues from the Villa line up in the FA Cup third round tie against West Ham on Friday. If he plays, he cannot represent any club other than Stockport or Villa this season.
Barry though is hoping this is a moment to catapult him onto the stage he seemed destined to grace.
Taylor opens can of worms with Joao Pedro penalty
Not only has Anthony Taylor condemned us all to battle this weird new emotion, sympathy for Mikel Arteta, but by awarding a penalty for a clash of heads between two players trying to head the ball he also opens a fresh can of worms.
I’ve no doubt Joao Pedro was hurt by the crack on the side of his head but his overreaction bought the decision and so we brace for the inevitable increase of falling down and rolling around sure to follow across the Premier League.
By awarding a penalty for this clash of heads between Joao Pedro and William Saliba, Anthony Taylor has invited a fresh wave of players falling down and rolling around
Newcastle’s dark arts
One unfortunate side-effect of Newcastle’s return to winning ways is that no team wastes time when ahead quite like Eddie Howe’s. It became infuriating at Tottenham on Saturday.
Referee Andy Madley declared four added minutes in the first half and 10 in the second and was still playing as the clock ticked past 102 minutes.
Alexander Isak glides like quicksilver in front of goal and turns glacial when substituted.
Newcastle have become masters of time-wasting and defending their advantage recently
Mark Robins drinks from poisoned chalice
Mark Robins looks like a sensible appointment at Stoke City. Then again, at the time, so did Stephen Schumacher. So did Alex Neil. And so did various others this side of Tony Pulis, which probably means something other than the manager is preventing them climbing out of the Championship’s doldrums.
With the stability of their backing by the wealthy Coates family, loyal support and rich heritage they are not a club that should be fretting about relegation to the third tier but something there is awry.
Mark Robins is a sensible appointment for Stoke, but sensible men before him have failed
Tottenham’s gaggle of goalies
Tottenham’s swoop for Antonin Kinsky for £12.5million from Slavia Prague bloats their goalkeeping ranks to eight.
Guglielmo Vicario is injured. Fraser Forster is 36 and out of contract in June. Brandon Austin played on Saturday. Alfie Whiteman was on the bench. Luca Gunter and Aaron Maguire are in the Under 21s. Josh Keeley is on loan at Leyton Orient.
Kinsky is 21 and a son of a former ‘keeper by the same name, and if he is the prospect they hope, there would appear to be little future at Spurs for six of the other seven.
If Antonin Kinsky lives up to expectations at Spurs, it’s a sorry sign for their other understudies
A toast to Parkinson
Phil Parkinson might be growing immune to stardom with all the Hollywood hullaballoo surrounding Wrexham these days but would have been honoured to pass the milestone of 1,000 games as a manager in the presence of Sir Alex Ferguson, the Godfather of all British managers.
Fergie descended on the Racecourse Ground on Saturday to support his son Darren, whose Peterborough United side lost 1-0 to Parkinson’s promotion chasers.
Congratulations to Wrexham boss Phil Parkinson on reaching 1,000 games as a manager
Sir Alex Ferguson watched from the stands as his son Darren’s Peterborough faced Wrexham
