Barnsley FC need to shatter illusion they are a selling club

In terms of losing key players either before or at the start of a season, the Reds have worn the 
T-shirt many times over.

Jacob Brown’s sale to Stoke City is the latest in a lengthy list of close-season departures in recent times including Ethan Pinnock, Kieffer Moore, Alfie Mawson, Marley Watkins and Marc Roberts.

It remains to be seen if Brown is the last major Oakwell exit before the mid-October deadline, with the likes of Alex Mowatt and Cauley Woodrow also having Championship admirers.

The club’s pledge that funds up front from Brown’s exit would go straight into squad strengthening has at least been immediately backed up with the signing of Polish defender Michał Helik – their fourth close-season recruit.

The Cracovia centre-half, 25, will provide another back-four option for Struber, who is anxious for further incoming deals.

The Austrian’s impact since arriving at Oakwell last November has been seismic, with his achievements in rescuing the Reds from a seemingly hopeless looking predicament bearing testament to his aptitude.

In the process, at 43, he has marked himself as a coach to watch. His star is on the rise, just like several of his players.

Brown may have gone and others may too. But emerging players remain including the likes of Callum Styles, Mads Andersen and Jordan Williams.

They all stepped up to the plate during Barnsley’s splendid ‘Great Escape’ act alongside the redoubtable figure who held it all together in Michael Sollbauer.

His cool presence and experience will be called upon again. While talk from optimists has centred on Barnsley having an impact in the top half of the table after their high-summer feats, it is surely a case of ‘first things first.’

Consolation and a sound opening to the season – and avoiding last season’s desperate autumn when the Reds’ fates unravelled – will be the first port of call.

Bringing in some new options to enable Struber to build on his fine work of last season will be equally imperative in an opening month to 2020-21 which is likely to show where Barnsley will ultimately be at in the new season.

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James Mitchinson