Exodus of Experience at Barnsley

The news that Barnsley are parting company with a raft of key players as announced yesterday leaves one wondering what the next step will be for the South Yorkshire club? Hugo Colace may have been offered a new agreement but can the Argentinian be expected to apply his signature to this document given the impending exodus?

The Oakwellers tried to keep another of their stars with an aversion to scissors, Maltese international Daniel Bogdanovic, but the ex-Lokomotiv Sofia and Marsaxlokk man decided to keep his pen in his pocket. Darren Moore’s best days are behind him and Jon Macken’s goal per game ratio has never cut the mustard, but they and fellow departees Rob Kozluk and Anderson de Silva have a broad range of experience. The squad as it stands today has only 17 first teamers.

So Barnsley badly need bodies: a situation which may be improved if Nicky Butt’s rumoured arrival in a coaching role is true. Mark Robins could also well return to ex-club Rotherham United for Adam Le Fondre and Motherwell’s Jim O’Brien has already been linked, but another likely route would be to opt for loan stars. A certain Scot will forever owe Robins a favour and, the totalling of a snack bar notwithstanding, a few young Red Devils may be crossing the Pennines this summer.

Rob Langham

Rob Langham (pen name: Lanterne Rouge) is co-founder of the defiantly non-partisan football league blog, The Two Unfortunates, a website that occasionally strays into covering issues of wider importance. He's 47 and lives in Oxford while retaining his boyhood support of Reading FC. He tweets as @twounfortunates and has written for a number of websites and publications including The Football Attic, The Inside Left, When Saturday Comes, In Bed with Maradona, Futbolgrad and The Blizzard as well as being nominated for the Football Supporters' Federation Blogger of the Year Award in 2013.