Celtic and Leeds United turn transfer rivals for Aston Villa player after £21m deal and high Unai Emery praise

An Aston Villa player is reportedly attracting transfer interest from Celtic and Leeds United after a good first half of the season.

Louie Barry spent the first half of the season on loan at Stockpor County where he lit it up, scoring 16 goals in 24 games before being recalled to his club. Now Aston Villa are assessing what is next for him.

With a £21m deal agreed to sign Donyell Malen from Borussia Dortmund, Aston Villa boss Unai Emery intends running the rule over Barry this month before deciding on what comes next. It is claimed by the Daily Mail that Celtic are ‘keen’ to sign him on loan.

Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers wanted to do a loan deal with Aston Villa but it could prove difficult as they are already close to their full quota of foreign loans as per Premier League rules. Leeds United and Middlesbrough in the English Championship are ‘also in the running.’

Currently, Rodgers has the likes of Daizen Maeda, Nicolas Kuhn, Yang and James Forrest to call upon when everyone is fully fit. Emery has already discussed Barry this month and made it clear the young attacker is someone he rated highly in glowing praise.

He said: “(Barry) trained with us and we are going to make a plan with him, an overall plan, I think he is a very good player who is progressing well. He has been on loan doing fantastic. Now we can have a new plan with him.

"He improved because he was scoring a lot of goals on loan. With us he only trained today and yesterday. Of course we are going to try and get a good plan for the club with him."