Yahoo Sport 
Aston Villa youngster can't stop scoring as transfer decision looms
After several spells around the lower leagues of English football, Louie Barry has found his feet at Stockport County under Dave Challinor.
The 21-year-old was thrust into the limelight as a schoolboy after leaving West Bromwich Albion for Barcelona in July 2019, becoming the first English player to join La Masia. Barry had previously been close to signing for French club Paris Saint-Germain given the promise he was showing as a teenager.
Just six months after leaving for Spain, he returned to England to sign for his boyhood club Aston Villa at the age of 16. Villa's academy manager Mark Harrison - who had been working at West Brom when Barry was coming through the ranks there - was key to bringing the forward back to the West Midlands.
READ | Aston Villa open Morgan Rogers talks after rapid progress under Unai Emery
READ | Rating all 18 of Unai Emery's Aston Villa signings after £270m transfer spend
Barry was part of the Villa team that won the FA Youth Cup in 2021 alongside the likes of Carney Chukwuemeka and Tim Iroegbunam, who have already established themselves as Premier League players. Kaine Kesler-Hayden and Lamare Bogarde have also made the step up to the first-team under Unai Emery, but have some way to go to cement themselves in the squad.
Kesler-Hayden, like Barry, has been on a number of loan spells in his career already, but appears to have established himself in the Championship following a loan spell at Plymouth Argyle last season, which earned him a move to Preston North End this term. Bogarde has made his Premier League and Champions League debut this season after being given the opportunity to impress Emery in pre-season.
Progress is never linear and players will always develop at different rates, so although Barry has scored a hatful of goals for Stockport in League Two last season and at the start of their League One campaign this campaign, it doesn't mean that the forward must now be pushed into the Championship once the January window opens.
Barry scored for seven games running in League Two last season, before picking up a nasty hamstring injury. He has taken no time to make the step up to the third-tier, bagging 10 goals in 14 matches in all competitions.
Allowing Barry to continue his development and fine form under Challinor could be a wise decision this January because there will be calls for Villa to accelerate the forward's progress by sanctioning a Championship loan instead - that is if a recall option was agreed on back in the summer.
In the world of Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR), Barry is a valuable asset considering a sale would go down as pure profit. Birmingham City, who had a look at Barry in the summer, splashed a League One record transfer fee of between £10m-£15m on Jay Stansfield, who is of similar profile to Barry. If Villa were to receive a comparable fee, Barry would have to prove himself in the second tier too.
Emery will no doubt want to have a closer look at Barry next summer in pre-season before Villa make a call on his future, having already given him a contract extension before his second loan move to Stockport. If Barry maintains his excellent form, Villa will have a big call to make on his future in the next transfer window while there'll no doubt be growing interest from Championship clubs.
