MLADEN Sormaz says that planning for the January winter window will be begin shortly at Barnsley - with an eye on some potential 'early movement'.

The Reds, who entertained Brighton in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night, had a relatively steady summer window in the circumstances and thoughts are now turning to the future.

Eight new signings arrived, while six players left the club, including five on loan.

Sporting director Sormaz told The Yorkshire Post: "Conor (Hourihane) will have a couple of weeks with the squad now before we start pulling him in to having a meeting every other week to see how we want to attack the (winter) market and hopefully see some early movement.

placeholder image — Mladen Sormaz and Conor Hourihane.

"Generally, we try to avoid too much activity either way in January. Because if you are buying in, you often overpay.

"Sometimes, you might get a better fee than you should for an exit, but it can disrupt things. We do see internally where we could do one or two things a bit better.

“We’re happy in general (with the summer). There's a couple of spots where we know we can be a bit stronger, but I think you come out of most windows thinking that.

"The biggest thing is we went into deadline day and the final week without any massive need to do anyone. It was on our terms. It helps you for the season really.”

Barnsley sporting director Mladen Sormaz.

One thing that supporters will not see in January is the club wafting the chequebook with abandon, with Sormaz unapologetic about that, given the problems which he feels that a number of third-tier rivals are experiencing as a result of overspending last term.

He continued: "When I took the role, it's important to say that I respected the thing about sustainability.

"The board always said that the whole point of it was that you don't have one massively 'off' year or two where you can't do anything and the fans are just turning up for the sake of it.

"You might have to take a bit of a hammering because you are in a good position and we didn't go massive on it and it falls off.

"You will end up taking the stick, but it's for the greater good of being able to be competitive every year and then hopefully one or two of those seasons come off.

"There's clubs across the board who have had to be really careful up against FFP."