Barnsley FC: Michael Duff expecting late transfer business at Oakwell

Duff has confirmed that he has spoken to a host of transfer targets, but nothing is likely to be finalised until the last week of trading with the window closing at 11pm on September 1.

He said: “I think we are probably going to go into the last week.

“If I sat and talked about every player we have spoken to, we’d be sat here for a long, long time.

“They (recruitment department) are working hard, I can assure people of that. I know it is an easy one where people go: ‘We have not signed a player, so no-one is doing anything.’

“It’s not through a lack of trying. Lots of factors need to fall into place for any transfer to happen. At the minute, we are not quite in there. But I don’t think we are massively short anyway.

“We are short in a couple of positions, but it is not like we need to bring in seven or eight players and can’t field a team.”

Meanwhile, Duff says that letting some fringe players leave the club to boost their game-time levels is a possibility.

“That’s something that obviously we need to (consider),” the Reds chief added.

“As the window draws to a close, it might not be where we are actually at in terms of squad and balance and where we need cover – but feel it is more beneficial for people to either play elsewhere as they are not going to be involved here or the younger ones where a loan is more important.

“A few have probably gone past (under) 23’s football such as Jasper Moon and people like that. At the minute, he is still part of it.

“But we want to do the right thing by the players as well and don’t want to just collect players and hoard them.

“Experience and exposure is what they need.”