Barnsley chief Michael Duff waiting for Premier League clubs to decide which players they are loaning out

With just over a month to go before the summer deadline, the Reds – linked with a move for Southampton defender Kayne Ramsay – remain in the market for new signings.

As it stands, many Championship clubs are currently waiting for the green light for their Premier League counterparts to finalise their squads after returning from summer tours and deciding which players will be moved out.

That has a knock-on effect for League One clubs who are also in the market for players, with many second-tier clubs deciding on who is available from their own squad ranks once they get word of what is happening with targets from the league above.

Duff said: “It is always a cascade. When they (Premier League clubs) go on big tours, they take big squads of the better younger players that they want to have a look at in pre-season.

“Then they generally let a lot of them go and then there is the fall-out from that. Obviously, there is a food chain down the leagues.

“We are not stupid or foolish enough to think that if a player has got a Championship club looking for him, he is not going to go there. Because players want to play as high as they can.

“So we have got to sit and wait and hopefully, we will get the right ones.”

Barnsley, who will be backed by around 800 fans in Duff’s first competitive game in charge at Plymouth Argyle tomorrow, must make do without midfielder Herbie Kane for the first month of the season.

The ex-Hull and Doncaster loanee is out for five to six weeks with a groin problem.

The 23-year-old also injured his groin late on last season during his loan spell at Oxford United, but Duff says that it is not a recurrence of that particular problem.

He added: “I think it is the same muscle, but a different part of the muscle. So it is not a recurrence of the old injury.

“I really liked him when he was at Oxford last year and he played against us (Cheltenham) twice, Karl Robinson spoke really highly of him and I am very close to Grant McCann and he speaks really highly of him as well.

“It is disappointing, as I was excited to work with him. But even from what I have seen in pre-season, you can see he’s a good player.”