Louie Barry is somewhat in purgatory at the moment. After an electric first half of last season, on loan at Stockport County in League One, Barry was hot property. Aston Villa opted to recall the youngster and loan him out once again, this time to Championship strugglers Hull City. However, Barry would suffer an injury after only four appearances and wouldn’t play again for the Tigers.
Aston Villa are now looking to offload Louie Barry in order to comply with PSR rules and there is a lot of interest in his signature. This is hardly a surprise considering that in 23 League One matches last season; Barry walked away with 15 goals and 2 assists. Additionally, Aston Villa have set an asking price of just £3.5 million.
Barry seemed to be on his way back to Hull City, this time on a permanent basis, however, with Hull recently being hit with a transfer embargo, the deal has collapsed. Hull are appealing the decision so there is a chance that Barry could be heading there after all, but this does seem unlikely at this point.
Whilst there is plenty of interest in Barry’s services, Aston Villa are seemingly insistent on the inclusion of a 50% sell on clause as part of any deal which will surely thin the heard. So, who is interested in the 22-year-old?
Sheffield United
The first club tipped to swoop in for Barry is Sheffield United. The play off finalists will be looking for players who can get them over the line going into this season and Barry could be one of them.
With former Hull boss Ruben Selles, now in charge at Bramall Lane, he could well be interested in a reunion with Barry, especially given several attacking players have already left the club and star player Gustavo Hamer is constantly linked with an exit.
West Bromwich Albion
Barry played for West Brom between 2009-2019, eventually trading the West Midlands for Barcelona, with the Baggies now potentially interested in a reunion.
The Albion made a strong start to last season until manager Carlos Corberan departed to manage hometown club Valencia. His replacement, Tony Mowbray, could only manage five wins in eighteen games and they would drift away from playoff contention. If he were to return to the Hawthorns, Barry could well find himself in the starting XI, with his main competition Michael Johnston and Karlan Grant both linked with moves away.
There is also reportedly interest from Derby, Birmingham and Middlesborough, as well as newly promoted to the Premier League Sunderland and Burnley. However, I think that the latter two moves could be a step too far for him at this point in his career.
Celtic are something of a wildcard in this transfer battle, given that manager Brendan Rodgers has been interested in the player previously and the fact that they have qualified for the Champions League.
