I am failing to see the downside here.
If Barnes turns out to be the player he can potentially be and helps us get promoted, then we all of a sudden come into a load of money again for being a premier league club and may have the option to buy him for a probably large fee.
If Leicester decide they want to keep him, then if we get promoted we have will have a whole new pool of other players to try and buy being a premier league club again, Leicester have very cleverly covered their backs by giving him a 4 year deal.
I would imagine that as he was playing well in the championship last season he is probably better than Leko and a couple of our other youngsters, i would assume some will now go out on loan, get some game time.
If we dont do go up and lose Barnes, this time next year we will have our players back from loan who after a year out playing reguarly (like Barnes has done last season or two) may be ready to step up to the first team, if they arent ready, some may be sold on, some may be loaned for another season.
If Barnes isnt upto it then he goes back to leicester, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
After spending £15m on Burke last summer, a signing who as it stands hasnt quite worked out yet (hopefully this season we will see more of him and the player we think he potentially can be) i can understand why we arent throwing £10m on unproven young players.