The Athletic’s Aston Villa journalist Dan Bardell recently spoke about whether he believed 17-year-old Louie Barry is good enough to feature for the Villa first-team.
Barry, who arrived at the club from Barcelona for a fee of £943k in January, has highly impressed throughout his youth career, scoring two goals in 10 appearances for Barcelona’s youth teams, as well as two goals in Villa’s 3-3 draw with Norwich City U18s and one goal against Reading U23s in a 3-1 loss for Villa.
The striker has also 14 goals over 24 appearances for England’s U15, U16 and U17 sides, though he is yet to taste first-team football at Villa Park.
And, despite his young age, Dan Bardell recently stated on The Villa View podcast that he would like to see Barry involved with the Aston Villa first team before the end of the season.
He said: “I suggest that he [Barry] may as well be on [the bench], and I’m going to be picking on Borja Baston again, but Borja Baston is not going to be at Aston Villa next season. Villa are losing a game 2-1 and they don’t bring Borja Baston on, what’s the point of him being on the bench? There’s literally no point in being there. You may as well have me or you the bench, because we wouldn’t get on either. It’s just filling up a space that could be utilised elsewhere.
“Louie Barry’s very, very highly rated from what I’ve seen in the age groups below at Villa, and with England. He pretty much scores every time he plays. I mean, there’s not much to lose by having him on the bench, to be fair, even at his age. If you’ve been at Barcelona, there’s obviously something very, very good about you.
“And as I say, Borja Baston is not going to be there next season. Borja Baston is not going to get on the pitch at any point if he’s not getting on the pitch when we’re losing 2-1 and we haven’t made all our subs. Throw him in there.”
TIF Thoughts…
It seems a sensible point that Bardell makes regarding both Barry and Borja Baston.
Should Louie Barry be given a chance to play in the Villa first team?
Yes
No
With Baston’s contract expiring this summer, as well as the fact that Dean Smith did not bring the striker on despite the fact that his side were chasing the game against Chelsea, why not afford his place on the bench to a young and up and coming striker such as Barry?