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The word started spreading Thursday that Danny Barrow, a 19 year old from West Bromwich Albion was signing with Sporting Kansas City. Not wanting spread rumors, we reached out to our normal contacts.
The first response was from an official source and they confirmed that Barrow had trained with SKC but was not here now and has not signed a contract.
That left it very open to what might happen in the future and of course the transfer window does not open for a few more days.
Barrow had tweeted that it had been 5 days and he was looking forward to getting back to Sporting Kansas City to train but deleted it later.
Thanks to @JustnRZimmerman for forwarding the screenshot of Barrow's tweet.
This article makes it sound like the deal is done (and uses Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard in the title to get more search engine hits). It also says the young attacker will be returning to Missouri at the end of the month. Barrow could be signing the contract at any moment and waiting for a visa to be granted or perhaps just getting everything ready to be left behind as he travels on a new adventure.
While he appears small in the videos (maybe he is still growing) he did make 13 appearances with the WBA u21's. He was listed as playing all over the midfield, left, right, attacking, and winger and center forward as well so he has some versatility.
It will be interesting to see if this signing does happen as reported and just how good he might be. If he is signed he might be quickly loaned to Oklahoma City but more likely he would be kept in Kansas City for this year.
Sporting Kansas City manager Peter Vermes likes to keep young players around the first year to get them set on his path before sending them on loan although there have been exceptions.
With the team off for a few days and the holiday rapidly approaching, most of our contacts have been rather quiet so far.
So while we wait to see if this is true, let us know what you think. Does this look like a good pickup for Sporting KC? More future depth or can he make an impact sooner rather than later?