Barnsley Season Preview: replacing key men

Life at Oakwell these days is rarely dull. One moment Barnsley are winning trophies at Wembley before becoming a feared Championship force, the next they are selling key players at an alarming rate. The question now is whether the club can catch it’s breath in the Championship and stabilize in an increasingly silk-stocking second tier. Supporter Luke Tingle gives us the lowdown.

There’s plenty of seasons of mediocrity and underachievement that fans have to endure for all teams, so you should really saviour and make the most of the highs. Going from the bottom of the League One table to pushing for the top six in the championship in the space of 12 months whilst winning two trophies at Wembley along the way is remarkable in my opinion.

It’s a shame we’ve not been able to continue that form into this year but we’ve taken a big step forward as a club over the last couple of years which is huge for us. If we hopefully survive this season then we could be onto a winner with most of the new lads on 3 year deals and a new approach to offering new deals.

2017 has so far given you a glimpse of the challenges ahead, with results dipping in the absence of key players. How much did you miss Conor Hourihane and others in the second half of last season?

Yes I guess you could say that. Interestingly we seemed to change the way we play after January because of how much the goals dried up. We had some pretty good results in Feb, especially when you look at who we played against and the players we lost. We need goals in the team and I think that’s why in this window we’ve recruited heavily in midfielders who score goals.

Hourihane was such a big player for us, one of the best I’ve ever seen in a reds shirt. We were always going to struggle when he left. A captain and natural leader, he controlled games whilst consistently delivering assists and goals. He was the biggest miss for us.

One of the first teamers leaving this summer is Marc Roberts, to Birmingham. Was he one of your stand-out players last year?

Yes he was but there were plenty of stand-outs for us last year. It’s a shame he’s gone but it’s to be expected and in a way I feel that this one was more mutual than the ones that had left before. Robbo is at an age now where he doesn’t particularly fit our model. The whole ethos of the club since getting relegated back in 2014 was to bring in young and hungry players and then develop them to sell them for major profits and that’s what we’ve done.

What the club has to learn now is how to stick by this strategy whilst not putting us in a position where we seem to be constantly starting again every season. We’ve lost 6 key first team players since January and no team can get away with doing that every season.

Your replacements for Roberts are a 21-year-old, Liam Lindsay and a man jumping up three divisions, Ethan Pinnock. Given that Angus MacDonald isn’t too experienced at this level, it looks like you’ve made high-risk signings in an area where mistakes are costliest…

Maybe, but we’ll see. We seem to have got the knack for finding quality defenders at a lower level, all you have to do is look at both Robbo and Angus to see that it’s worked in the past. Both have come with rave reviews and I’m confident at least one of them will make that step up quickly and slot in well next to Angus.

Jason McCarthy has been Player of the Year at Wycombe and Walsall while Zeki Fryers played in the Premier League last year. If versatile full-back Andy Yiadom goes, are you confident you’ve got ready-made replacements?

We definitely have in Jason McCarthy. I think the lad is going to be class for us this season. His energy up and down the right hand side is very impressive. I’m still unsure on Zeki Fryers. For all that promise that premier league teams have seen in him, he seems to have struggled when out on loan at times. He may just need a run of games.

I actually think we’ll keep hold of Yiadom. I really hope we can get him to sign a new deal (even if it’s just for an extra year), the money that has been talked about for him is nowhere near what he’s worth to us on the pitch. There would be little point selling because of the fact that he is just too good to lose.

Adam Davies had a cracking game against Huddersfield last year. Is he an asset?

I personally think so. For such a young keeper he’s got a very good amount of experience and he’ll only keep on getting better. He’s still got daft mistakes in him which have cost us games in the past but he’s on the right track to becoming a quality keeper at this level.

One thing I do think though is that he might need better competition for his place. Townsend hasn’t seemed to really get near him over the last couple of years.  He could do with a loan spell away I think and we should maybe look at bringing in a new number 2 to pose a better challenge.

New signing Stephen Mallan got good reviews at St Mirren. Does the success of the departing Marley Watkins show there is talent north of the border?

It can be very much hit and miss. We’ve had some gems over the years like Marley and others like king Ronnie Glavin etc. But on the other hand players like Kane Hemmings who come with very good goal scoring records fail to impress. I think the standard isn’t as bad as people may think and it suits us to look up there as we can get some bargains.

There is definitely talent up there, but I think you have to be a little more detailed in your scouting of players because of the calibre of competition that these players are facing in the Scottish leagues.

Mallan will compete with Cameron McGeehan, who signs from Luton, plus Alex Mowatt and George Moncur. You’ll have a lot of attack-minded midfielders…

We do, but Hecky has already stated that he wants his midfielders to be all rounders, none of them will be in the team just to attack or defend. I guess the thinking behind signing more attack-minded midfielders is that we can teach them the defensive side to their game whereas trying to teach scoring and assisting is a much more difficult task.

Also to throw in another way to look at it… I think we may use Mallan on the wing if need be. He was played on the wing the other night and it was very successful.
From the pre-season games it seems that he’s the main man for set pieces so they must think highly of his crossing ability. He’s also got a cracking strike on him.

Josh Scowen has gone to QPR. Given that you’ve only got Sessi D’Almeida for the holding role right now, are you hoping someone similar to Scowen joins?

Yes I was hoping we were going to bring someone in and we’ve just brought in Joe Williams from Everton on a season long loan. Apparently he comes with a very good pedigree having captained there U23’s side to winning their league last season.

He’s definitely the sort of player we needed. I really like Sessi and I think he’s actually a very good player. My only concern with him is that he might occasionally start to run around like a headless chicken etc. Also, It took Moncur a good 6/7 months to show signs that he was capable of playing as an all round centre midfielder. It might take Mowatt, Mallan and McGeehan just as long, so it’s good we’ve brought in another more defensive minded midfielder.

Tricky winger Lloyd Isgrove was key to your promotion in 15/16. With Ryan Kent not returning, are you pleased to see Isgrove back?

Yes, he’s a fan favourite is Isgrove and ever since he want back to Southampton all I ever saw on twitter was people going on about him coming back. He needs to improve on his input in goals and assists but it’s a very solid signing for us and he fits exactly what we’re about.

The ‘popular’ Sam Winnall finished last season as your top scorer despite his January move. With no new strikers signed since, is this a big year for Tom Bradshaw?

Yes it is. He did okay in his first season with us at this level when you think about it. I think he’ll flourish with the right striker next to him. In my opinion he’s one of the best footballers we’ve signed, but in that position it’s all about putting it in the back of the net and he needs to be looking to double what he got last year.
We have just recently signed Ike Ugbo from Chelsea who seems a real talent. A lot of Chelsea fans rate him higher than Tammy Abraham and we all know how he got on last season.

I’m fairly certain that we will sign at least one more striker and I hope it’s a so called “bigger lad” as we need someone who can hold it up, particularly if we’re playing one up top which seems an option this season.

What are your thoughts ahead of the Championship season as a whole? Any potential dark horses for you?

As always I’m buzzing for the season to start. In my opinion it’s a real mixed bag this time around and I can’t think of any team who looks likely to run away with it. It could be really tight at both ends of the table. There’s always one or two teams that are a surprise package at both the top and bottom of the league and I think that will be the case again.

In terms of ‘dark horses’, I’m struggling to really think of any. The only one that pops into my head is Brentford and that might still depend on what happens with Jota. Also probably Norwich(even though they might not be much of a dark horse).

There could be others who might be up there this year like Wolves, Birmingham and Villa but they along with others in this league are all throwing way too much money about. Out of principle I’ll never want those sort of clubs to do well, it could quite easily backfire on them.

Where will you finish? You were reasonably close with 18th last summer… 

It’s been 12 months since I said that I can’t wait to see how this untested team gets on at this level and that we might hopefully be a surprise package… 12 months on and we’re seemingly back to square 1, so it’s very much the same for me. We still need 1 first team winger and striker in to be honest and I just hope the lads gel quickly enough for the start of the season.

I always try and look at 3 worse teams and it could be close but I think we could quite easily finish above the likes of Bolton, Millwall, Burton, Ipswich, QPR etc. And then like I said earlier, there’s always a team or 2 who surprise you by being so terrible.

I’d snap your hand off for 21st again but like last year I’ll say 18th.

The Football Lab’s Verdict

More key men leave Barnsley, who have won just twice since Hourihane and Winnall’s January exit. Young summer signings have talent – McCarthy and Isgrove could threaten down the right – but arrive from inferior leagues. Without leaders to guide them, these fresh-faced Tykes are thrown in at the deep end. 22nd

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