Barnsley determined not to be caught napping over contracts this time

It is a case of ‘once bitten, twice shy’ for the Reds, whose tardiness regarding contract extension talks with a number of key players under the old regime in 2016-17 came back to haunt the club, forced to cash in and sell the likes of Sam Winnall, Conor Hourihane and James Bree in early 2017 with a successful side effectively broken up.

Now the club have adopted a more proactive approach, with the likes of Alex Mowatt, Adam Davies, George Moncur and Adam Jackson all seeing their current contracts terminate at the end of June.

Dimitri Cavare’s contract has an option of a further 12 months.

The club also spoke with former striker Tom Bradshaw regarding a contract extension, but elected to sell him to Millwall ahead of last month’s summer deadline, with the forward rejecting the offer and expressing a desire to move south for personal reasons.

Ganaye said: “For the past few weeks, we have already been offering most of them (out of contract players) a new deal. We never want our players’ deals to run out.

“You need to do it at the right time to secure the extension.

“Sometimes, it is not possible and it does not matter what time you are trying to do it. Sometimes, the player does not sign the deal, like Andy Yiadom (last year), although we tried a bit late probably.

“But you need to try at the right time to have the best time.

“We try to convince them to stay for a bit longer. It may happen for some of them, it may not happen to others. Then we will have a decision to take it in January.

“Daniel (coach Stendel) will always put the best team on the pitch, no matter what.”

Recent signing Cauley Woodrow is set to return to training next week, confirmed assistant head coach Andreas Winkler.

The former Fulham forward picked up a muscle injury on his first day of training with his new team-mates, but the issue is not significant and he is expected to be in the fray later this month.

Winkler said: “It is not a bad injury. It is the first injury he has had with a muscle in his life and he wanted to make sure he does not get injured (in the same way) again. It is not a big deal.

“He will be training with the squad next week.”