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Villa face crucial decision on future of top talent amid impressive loan stint

Sumeet Paul
With the summer transfer window fast approaching, Aston Villa will face a whole host of crucial decisions regarding Unai Emery’s squad.

Our pursuit of Champions League qualification continues with just two Premier League games remaining, and although the odds are turning in our favour, we still have work to do to surpass our rivals and secure a top-five finish.

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Whether or not we return to Europe’s top table could have a significant knock-on effect for our plans and strategy in the transfer market, as it may well shift our focus in terms of potential incomings, while the need for outgoings with PSR continuing to loom over us, could be emphasised.

It will be a fine balancing act for President of Football Operations, Monchi, and the rest of the management team, as ultimately we’ve seen in recent windows that sales will likely be required to continue to balance our books.

In an ideal world, we’d move on those considered expendable. It’s fair to say Philippe Coutinho, Leander Dendoncker, Alex Moreno and others don’t have a future with us, while we’ll trim the squad with our current loanees possibly not joining on a permanent basis.

That in turn will also help to reduce our wage bill, but it’s one thing identifying who would be the perfect sacrifices, and another entirely seeing clubs interested in those individuals and making offers deemed acceptable by Villa.

As we’ve seen with the sales of Douglas Luiz and Jhon Duran over the past 12 months, tough decisions have to be made, and there could be another one in relation to Enzo Barrenechea’s future.

The 23-year-old joined us from Juventus last summer, and despite impressing in pre-season, Villa ultimately decided to send him out on a season-long loan to Valencia.

In 30 appearances across all competitions, the Argentine midfielder has excelled and earned rave reviews, and as seen in the clips below, he arguably ticks a lot of important boxes when it comes to fitting into an Emery system and style of play.

Barrenechea will have gained valuable experience and matured this season, developing his game further and improving in areas that were perhaps considered weaknesses.

With his physicality, athleticism, composure in possession, vision and passing range, he is perfect for the deeper midfield pivot that Villa play with, and there was obviously a clear reason as to why we wanted him last summer as part of our dealings with Juventus for Luiz.

At his age and with the potential he possesses, Barrenechea would be an easy sell to raise significant funds and alleviate pressure we’re feeling when it comes to PSR and UEFA’s regulations.

However, it seems quite hard to find a single negative assessment of his season at Valencia, and so Villa need to be certain that we won’t be giving the green light to an exit of a star of the future.

With Youri Tielemans, Boubacar Kamara, Amadou Onana and Ross Barkley, that area of the current squad is arguably the strongest of all, with John McGinn capable of dropping deeper when needed too.

In turn, it could be argued that one of the names above would likely have to be moved on to make space for Barrenechea to come through, and that is something that Emery is perhaps not inclined to do this summer as we continue to build and progress into a side capable of competing at the highest level.

Barrenechea has done his part by having a successful loan stint and making a positive impression. Now, it’s on Villa to decide the next step, and it’s hoped that we snub the option of cashing in, and instead integrate the talented Argentine ace into the squad ahead of next season and hopefully watch him run the show in midfield for Emery in the coming years.

Sell or keep Barrenechea this summer?

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