Gerhard Struber on Barnsley FC's interest in Doncaster Rovers captain

The Reds have seen several offers for the 24-year-old rejected by their South Yorkshire neighbours, with their bids understood to have fallen significantly short of Rovers' valuation.

Whiteman remains an ongoing target, although other clubs are monitoring developments.

On the Whiteman situation, Struber said: "Ben is a very interesting player. He showed me that he can play in a good style in League One.

"He is an interesting player for us and we will see what the next days bring with him."

Despite the club's documented desire to bring in Whiteman, Struber admits that the club's current priority is repelling interest in some of his leading players, who are targets for rival clubs.

He said: "The (first) big challenge is to save (keep) the players here. We have players who are also interesting other clubs.

"The first big target is to save the players and the other one is that we bring interesting players here to Barnsley.

"This is not so easy, from the financial side, bringing the right players with high skills. We need players to help the team from the first second - and not always having the same situation where we have to grow up and develop players and maybe next season, they are ready for the Championship.

"We need a good balance. We have many talents in the squad and we need players who have professional experience who can make the young talents better.

"We work for that. We have no stress. We have one and a half months time to bring the right players."