---
title: "Aston Villa: Purslow keen on permanent Barkley deal"
canonical: "https://www.footballtransfertavern.com/aston-villa-purslow-keen-on-permanent-barkley-deal/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Charlie Smith"
section: "Aston Villa"
published: "2021-03-17T14:05:47Z"
modified: "2021-03-17T14:05:47Z"
---

# Aston Villa: Purslow keen on permanent Barkley deal

**Aston Villa chief executive Christian Purslow is spearheading a permanent move for on-loan midfielder Ross Barkley, despite Dean Smith not being keen on a deal.**

That’s according to an exclusive report from [Football Insider](https://www.footballinsider247.com/sources-purslow-spearheading-permanent-barkley-move-to-aston-villa/), who claim that Purslow “likes the profile” of the Chelsea man, with Villa forking out £11m to bring the 27-year-old to the Midlands for the 2020/21 campaign.

### Smith not so sure on Barkley?

Barkley has fallen out of favour under manager Smith in recent weeks, despite the absence of star man Jack Grealish.

He [hasn’t started any of Villa’s last four Premier League games](https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/ross-barkley/leistungsdaten/spieler/131978), with [Football Insider](https://www.footballinsider247.com/sources-purslow-spearheading-permanent-barkley-move-to-aston-villa/) claiming Smith is yet to be convinced that Barkley is worth the [£35m fee](https://www.footballinsider247.com/sources-major-update-on-aston-villa-signing-ross-barkley-as-price-tag-smith-stance-revealed/) that will be required to land him permanently this summer.

\[freshpress-poll id=”344938″\]

### Bizarre

This seems rather bizarre – with Smith seemingly not so keen on keeping hold of Barkley at this moment in time, we feel that Purslow should be holding off for now regarding a possible [club-record](https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/aston-villa/transferrekorde/verein/405) deal.

Purslow feels it would [send out a big message to the English game](https://www.footballinsider247.com/sources-purslow-spearheading-permanent-barkley-move-to-aston-villa/) if Villa were to sign Barkley permanently at the end of the season.

However, with Smith not even playing Barkley, especially with his star creative outlet injured, surely a whopping £35m deal doesn’t make sense.

***In other news: Several Villa supporters have been reacting to target’s boyhood Villa fan comments, find out more [here](https://www.footballtransfertavern.com/aston-villa-transfer-rumours/aston-villa-fans-react-to-rico-henry-comments/).***