Enzo Barrenechea - on loan at Benfica

[Demitri_C]

Surely will make good cover for kamara next  season?

[pauliewalnuts]

Surely will make good cover for kamara next  season?

If Kamara doesn't sign a new contract soon, he'll be his replacement.

[Brazilian Villain]

He'll have played almost two full seasons in Serie A and La Liga. I expect him to be part of the squad next season.

[ozzjim]

Starting to look a real player. Be lovely to have him and Kamara next season with the fitness records of Onana and Barkley.

[Dante Lavelli]

If he came back then we would be very well stocked for DCM.  Something like: 1. Kamara 2. Onana 3. Bogarde 4. Barkley (Tielemans and McGinn could also play there if needed).

It might be a position where we can look to sell a player and promote Enzo but I'd hate to see Kamara go and I don't think we'd receive much value elsewhere. 

[Smithy]

If he comes back to be part of our squad, it means someone else is going, as we don't have room for another central midfielder.  Kamara, Onana, Tielemens, McGinn, Barkley, and Enzo (plus Bogarde at a push) is too many CMs while we continue to play with a '10' player in the Rogers/Asensio position.

If we're erring on the side of caution in games, and playing with three genuine central midfielders rather than a 10, then maybe, but even then, 6 players to cover 2 (or sometimes 3) positions feels like a lot?  If it weren't for PSR I wouldn't care either way!

[London Villan]

We could have done with an extra one over the last few weeks....

[AV84]

Like with most potential squad decisions, qualifying for European competition will play a big part in this. Another CL campaign, and mounting a better league campaign, we could well do with all those CM players. No Europe and we might have to cut a couple.

[Steve67]

Bear in mind Barkley only has a two year deal.

[Toronto Villa]

Surely will make good cover for kamara next  season?

If Kamara doesn't sign a new contract soon, he'll be his replacement.

I’ll be surprised if Kamara’s deal isn’t done this summer. His current contract doesn’t end until June 30th 2027 so there is time.

[PaulTheVillan]

Bear in mind Barkley only has a two year deal.

Wikipedia says he signed a 3 year deal.

[Dave]

It was reported as a two year contract with us having the option to extend it by a further year if we want to.

Which would obviously tick both those boxes.

[Footy-Vill]

Transwell in the Athletic

Enzo Barrenechea did not waste any time to impress after signing for Aston Villa in the summer.

After a few early pre-season sessions, some team-mates’ assessments were conclusive: they were “blown away” by the Argentine midfielder’s technical ability following his move from Juventus in July.

Though his Villa career has taken a slightly different course, Barrenechea, 23, continues to attract attention after impressing on loan at Valencia since August.

Barrenechea was a late addition to Villa’s summer transfer dealings with Juventus. The two clubs had been discussing how to create a transfer, with ex-Villa midfielder Douglas Luiz the pawn. With profit and sustainability rules (PSR) in mind, several separate player transactions were discussed.

Villa manager Unai Emery had long advocated for USMNT midfielder Weston McKennie and made attempts to sign him in previous windows.

A deal for McKennie to move from Juventus to Villa Park, however, was unlikely to be completed before the June 30 financial deadline for PSR and would have delayed Douglas Luiz’s sale. Both clubs were pressed for time as they sought alternative solutions — one of which was Barrenechea.

The final deal saw Douglas Luiz swap the Premier League for Serie A for £42million ($55m), with Villa spending €22m (£18.5m; $24m) on Juventus duo Samuel Iling-Junior and Barrenechea (€11m each), amortised over five-year contracts.

“Samuel and Enzo are young players we trust,” Damian Vidagany, Villa’s director of football operations, told a group of journalists in September. “Maybe we knew they wouldn’t be ready to play for us immediately but both are young, talented, sustainable salaries and in the next year, they’re going to be good assets. That’s why people don’t understand (and say), ‘You buy a player then you loan him!’. But it’s not easy. What I want to stress is this deal was extremely difficult.”

In retrospect, none of the three players have offered an immediate impact. Iling-Junior was initially sent on loan to Bologna before a similar deal to Middlesbrough in January, while Douglas Luiz has endured a miserable time in Italy.

The experience for Barrenechea, however, has been rather different. He made a positive impact in Villa’s pre-season but the pathway into Emery’s midfield was congested following Amadou Onana’s club-record £50million acquisition from Everton and Boubacar Kamara’s improving fitness. Villa were unsure whether they should, from a development perspective, keep Barrenechea or send him on loan.

The player wanted game time and Valencia was the club, from a profile and opportunity standpoint, that appealed. Playing regularly in La Liga would ensure Barrenechea remained in the spotlight. Villa changed their minds twice, initially approving a season-long loan before, late in the summer window, insisting he would stay.

Emery said he would be involved in Villa’s opening home fixture against Arsenal, only for him to be left out 24 hours later. On deadline day, Villa — specifically Emery — pivoted once again, eventually granting the move.


Barrenechea’s stock was high among European scouting circles after a promising period on loan at promoted Serie A side Frosinone in the 2023-24 season. He made 36 league appearances and typically operated as the more conservative half of a midfield pair in a 3-4-2-1 formation.

Valencia tracked the player at Frosinone. A senior club source, speaking anonymously to protect relationships, says Barrenechea “was complete in the sense that he had the defensive ability, physicality and Argentinian personality” regarded as necessary at Valencia, given their enduring slump. They wanted to sign him permanently, only for Villa’s financial might to dash those hopes.

“We knew Enzo since he arrived at Juventus in 2020 from Sion,” says Gianluca Longo, chief scout at Frosinone. “He has always been a very interesting player and the year before our promotion to Serie A, we followed him a lot with Juventus’ Next Gen Squad and watched him live. In July 2023, we were looking for a central midfielder with his skill to dictate possession and he was the first player we decided on.

“Enzo matched what we needed. We are a small team so we have to pay huge attention on the finances. We decided to work on young players to buy and loan, developing relationships with the best clubs in Italy such as Juve and Atalanta and in Europe with Bayern Munich, Monaco and Real Madrid. Enzo was the first of the three Juventus players we took on loan during the season, along with Matias Soule and Kaio Jorge.”

Frosinone was Barrenechea’s fourth club in as many years, having joined Sion in Switzerland in a deal worth around €3million from Newell’s Old Boys in Argentina in 2019.

“I saw him for the first time before a game,” says Damien Buchard, Barrenechea’s team-mate at Sion. “He was training with the first team but originally playing some games with the under-21s. He didn’t speak French and only Spanish, so it wasn’t easy to communicate. Fortunately, I can also speak Spanish, so he stayed and spoke a lot with me. It was the first time he had left Argentina as a young 18-year-old and it wasn’t easy for him.

“Sion had a good relationship with Juventus, so I wasn’t surprised he left a year later. He missed home but his mentality was so strong. Other players have great quality but do not sign for such a club as Juventus or Aston Villa. I was quite sure at the time that he would finish his career playing at a great level.”

In November, Barrenechea was called up to Argentina’s national squad for the first time. He plays with an inherent maturity, is aggressive out of possession and has enjoyed the responsibility inadvertently put on him at Valencia in their quest for survival in La Liga.

Starting 15 of Valencia’s last 18 league matches — staying in the team despite a change of manager — Barrenechea’s presence has offered robustness to a team in flux. His early adaptation was “not easy”, according to sources at Valencia, as he struggled to complete matches due to a disrupted and “bumpy pre-season”.

Valencia now believe he is attuned. New head coach Carlos Corberan has deployed him as the deep-lying midfielder in a 4-2-3-1 system that can rotate, with Barrenechea dropping between the central defenders to receive the ball or allowing midfield partner, Javi Guerra, to push into higher areas, becoming a 4-3-3

Since matchday one, this has become a fight to avoid the drop,” says Paco Polit, a journalist who covers Valencia. “So the context where Enzo is playing isn’t the best one, but he’s been making the best of it. He might not be the best player in the team in almost any single game, but in a team where most have been failing, he has never been responsible for bad results because his performances are well above par.

“Valencia don’t have an alternative defensive midfielder, which is good for him because since Corberan has come in, he has been the undisputed starter. In a better team, he might shine even more.”

With more than 1,400 minutes in La Liga, Barrenechea has a body of work his parent club can reliably assess.

Villa will map out next season’s plans to convince Barrenechea to stay or, with the recurring issue of PSR and Valencia keen to sign him permanently, decide to cash in. Both clubs share a good relationship and feel comfortable discussing their viewpoints.

Barrenechea’s signing may prove to be a slow-burning success, whether in Emery’s squad or their accountancy books.

[DrGonzo]

At his age he's getting a very good level of experience.  He's 2 years older than Bogarde and his development is obviously more advanced.  The 2 of them could well be part of the long term future in the heart of midfield.  I'd be extremely suprised if we let him go permenantley.  I'd prefer him back and send Bogarde on a 12 month loan to give him the minutes he needs to develop.

[LeeS]

One thing is for certain, even when signings don’t work out, we can see that the club has a proper long term plan. And a good one at that.