The good news keeps pouring out of Oakwell.
In an interview with the Yorkshire Post BFC Sporting Director Mladen Sormaz has confirmed the club's policy of keeping the best players and building a squad.
This summer has seen the departures of Kane, Cole, Cadden, Williams and Cundy ( all end of contracts) and return to parent clubs of loanees McAtee, Roberts, Grant and McCart.
But Sormaz is determined to build the squad by retaining the likes of Connell, Phillips and Jalo confirming this with a string of positive comments in his interview--
"We don't want to sell anyone"
"We have no plans to sell"
"......someone has to come in with silly money for any of our best players to leave"
This strong retention policy and CEO Flatman's words that we are to bring in "exciting players" this summer sends out strong positive vibes for this summer's transfer window.
Sormaz insists that Barnsley will be under no pressure to sell any leading players this summer following their failure to be promoted back to the Championship.
The Reds are instigating plans for a third successive season at League One level for the first time since 2005-06.
Their squad has been significantly depleted by the departure of several key figures who chose to leave the club at the end of their current deals.
Jordan Williams, Devante Cole, Herbie Kane and Nicky Cadden all depart - with Barnsley not getting a penny in return, while having to replace them.
Bringing in replacements of requisite quality won’t come easy, while some existing contracted players could also receive interest in the close season.
They include Portuguese under-19 striker Fabio Jalo and midfielders Adam Phillips and Luca Connell.
In January, Jalo, 18 - whose form has been monitored by leading clubs at home and abroad - signed a new contract committing his future at Oakwell until June 2027, with the club having an option to add an
Connell’s four-year deal runs until the end of 2026-27, while Phillips’ deal expires in the summer of 2026.
Sporting director Sormaz said: “I’ll be honest, in general we don’t want to sell anyone.
"Most of the time with our best players, someone has to come in with silly money for any of our best players to leave.
"The good thing is that we have got our best players locked down on long-term contracts, so we’ve got leverage.
Sorry - didn’t see earlier post by SB on this topic - as the post hadn’t downloaded onto the site.
We have already seen the first test.
Kitching.
Neerav said they weren’t going to sell.
Kitching said he was going no matter what.
Consequently - Coventry had to stump up silly money to get him.
I think he cost Barnsley in the region of £250k to buy - one season later was sold for £5.5 million.
Now Conway is out of the mix - we can expect other deals like this.
The days of giving players away that are under contract are over.
That in itself is a massively important change at Barnsley - it’s been a long long long time coming - probably as far back as under the stewardship of Big JD.
I know it’s not a popular view on here - ok, we are still missing a Maurice Watkins type that had a finger in every pie - but personally I don’t think we have ever seen a better group of directors than what we have now.
“......someone has to come in with silly money for any of our best players to leave"
There’s still plenty of silly money in football and just what do this board actually call silly money.
I await with interest.
I really hope that he’s true to his word with keeping our players. We need Luca and Phillips here if we are to be towards the top end of the table.
I’ve said it numerous times but this summer is going to be huge. We need to replace those departed (goalkeeper, left wing back, right wing back, centre mid and 2 attackers) with players that are ready to step in right away. None of this ‘will be decent in a couple of years’. I guess with Lofthouse returning, we probably won’t be buying a right wing back but the rest all need replacing.
Yep - this summer is going to be a big un - and one that is likely to set the scene and foundations for seasons to come.
The club has had a catalogue of mishaps over this last couple of years.
But Khaled’s gone now - thank goodness.
And people have been brought in - new secretary, CEO and DoF - who hopefully can work with the shareholders and take the club forward.