Aston Villa transfer came too soon for Ipswich Town - Paul Cook never gave Portman Road chance | OneFootball

Louie Barry was so highly rated that Barcelona and West Brom fought over him in court, but a loan move to Ipswich turned out to be too soon for him.

Louie Barry was subject to a tug-of-love between Barcelona & West Brom before Aston Villa signed him, but his first loan move from Villa Park to Ipswich turned out to be too soon for the young forward.

Barry has been an Aston Villa player since January 2020, but his playing career has mostly been spent away from Villa Park on loan in the EFL.

But it took until 2023 for him to prove his potential, and the first of those loans, a short-term switch to Ipswich Town in the summer of 2021, turned out to be too soon for both him and the club to whom he went.

Louie Barry was subject to FIFA intervention before he'd played a senior game

LBarry's potential was such that he was the subject to a tug-of-love involving one of the biggest names in world club football before he'd even made a professional appearance.

After ten years in the academy at West Bromwich Albion between 2009-2019, Spanish and world football giants Barcelona stepped in and offered him a three-year contract at their youth academy, La Masia, in July 2019.

Outraged by the Catalans stepping in and offering him a contract without compensation, Albion took the matter to FIFA.

But the governing body found that Albion had failed to formally offer him a scholarship and found in favour of Barcelona.

Six months later in January 2020, they sold him to Aston Villa for £880,000, with the potential to rise to £3.5 million with add-ons.

Ipswich Town didn't see what Stockport County and others saw with Louie Barry loan deal

Once he'd arrived at Villa Park, his career development was almost immediately hampered by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The pandemic did, however, allow him his first taste of senior football. With 10 Villa players laid low by the virus in January 2021, he made his senior debut in the FA Cup for them and earned widespread praise after scoring the goal that was voted as the Goal of the Round.

With first-team opportunities limited, Barry was sent out on a season-long loan to Ipswich Town in August 2021. Ipswich had finished the previous season in ninth place in League One, and were seeking a return to the Championship, from whence they'd been relegated two seasons earlier.

He made his full starting debut against Newport County in the Carabao Cup, in August 2021 but was withdrawn during the second half of a 1-0 defeat. The following weekend - the second of the season - he was substituted on during their 2-1 defeat at Burton Albion, and three days afterwards he came on with a couple of minutes to play in another League One match, this time at Cheltenham Town, though again Ipswich lost 2-1.

And that was that, in terms of getting the game time that he'd gone to Portman Road to receive, beyond three appearances in the EFL Trophy. He was selected for the bench four further times without getting onto the pitch, but it was clear that the Ipswich manager Paul Cook didn't feel he was ready for first-team football and in January 2022, the loan was terminated early and he returned to Villa Park.

Further loan spells would follow at Swindon, Milton Keynes and Salford, but it would be at Stockport County where his promise would really start to show itself, although bad luck would initially get in the way. Having signed a contract extension with Aston Villa at the start of the 2023-24 season, he was sent to Edgeley Park.

But after a spectacular September, during which he scored in all five of his team's fixtures and ran up three assists, a hamstring injury kept him out of the first-team for the next six months. He ended the season with nine goals in 20 games as Stockport raced to the League Two title.

Barry returned to Edgeley Park, and this time he demonstrated what he's capable of in League One, scoring 15 times throughout the first half of the season before returning to Villa Park in January and being sent on loan to Hull City in the Championship for the second.

Consistency has clearly been an issue for Barry, but the talent, as demonstrated during his two hot streaks with Stockport County, is definitely there.

At 22 years of age, though, he's at the point of the career where that consistency is going to become important.

To a point, he's been unlucky with the clubs to which he's been sent in regards to league positions they've found themselves in, and sometimes a player can only be as good as those around him.

Barcelona were prepared to go to court over him and the Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp called him "Little Jamie Vardy"; the talent is there. But Paul Cook wasn't prepared to gamble on him in the 2021-22 season, and inconsistency has been the key theme of his career so far, but there's still plenty of time for Louie Barry to find the rhythm to match his skills.