View: Yet another youngster shows grass isn’t always greener after 2019 West Brom exit
Jerome Sinclair, Yan Dhanda, Izzy Brown, Saido Berahino – and now, potentially, Louie Barry.
West Brom fans have waved goodbye to a good number of highly-rated youngsters in recent years who have sought the bright lights of the Premier League’s top clubs instead of getting their heads down and working their way through the youth system of the Baggies.
Sinclair, 23, left Albion for Liverpool in 2011 but is currently on loan at VVV-Venlo from Watford. Dhanda, 21, went to Liverpool two years after Sinclair before joining Swansea in the summer. Brown, 23, quit The Hawthorns for Chelsea in 2013 but is now on his sixth loan spell away from Stamford Bridge at Championship basement boys Luton. And we all know what happened with Berahino.
Morgan Rogers left for Manchester City in the summer and it remains to be seen how he will get on but another 2019 exit was Barry, who stole the headlines when he made a move to Spanish titans Barcelona.
Barry, 16, was superb for West Brom’s youth sides last season and despite his tender age, even managed to make one appearance for the Under-23s in Premier League 2.
It was clear that he was someone with a lot of talent so interest from Barcelona – and Paris Saint-Germain – was no real surprise.
However, just months after quitting the beautiful Black Country for the dull Catalan capital, not all is well for the England Under-17 international.
According to the Daily Mail, Barry already wants to quit Barcelona and return to England.
It is understood that he has become unsettled due to certain personnel changes at Barca’s La Masia academy and is now keen to ditch his Spanish adventure just months after arriving.
West Brom’s local rivals Aston Villa are reportedly in talks to bring the young attacker back to the West Midlands – but is this not just further proof that the grass is not always greener for Albion’s youngsters?
Dara O’Shea, Jack Fitzwater, Nathan Ferguson, Rekeem Harper, Kyle Edwards and – technically – Romaine Sawyers are all products of West Brom’s academy and have played for the team that is second in the Championship on varying levels of regularity this season.
What has Sinclair done? What has Dhanda done? What has Brown done? What has Berahino done? And what has Barry done?
It is about time that Albion’s young stars start to realise that there is a trend for those academy products who try to quit The Hawthorns too soon.
In other West Brom news, the Baggies are keen to sign this League One midfielder.