Barnsley tied up their summer dealings by making their 15th and 16th captures of a very busy three months.
The summer long saga involving Oliver McBurnie finally came to an end as he arrived on a season long loan from Premier League Swansea City whilst midfielder Gary Gardner also arrived for the rest of the 2017-2018 campaign from Aston Villa.
The Reds have been chasing Leeds born 21-year-old striker McBurnie all summer but have had to wait until the Swans sorted out their striker department. This finally occurred late last night on deadline day when Wilfried Bony returned from Manchester City for around £12m allowing McBurnie to come back to Yorkshire.
A Scotland Under 21 international he started his career with Bradford City signing a three-year professional contract in 2013, making his debut on the 9th November that year in an FA Cup tie at Rotherham.
McBurnie went on to make another 14 appearances for the Bantams as well as spending time on loan at Chester in 2015, scoring four goals in his final seven games for the Conference outfit.
In the summer of 2015 McBurnie was signed by Swansea for an undisclosed fee on a three-year contract and was sent on loan to Newport County in the November where he scored a hat trick on his debut in a 3-0 win over Luton.
These were his only goals in a three game stint with the Rodney Parade outfit before he finished the season at their League Two rivals Bristol Rovers, failing to score.
2016-2017 became McBurnie's breakthrough year with Swansea and he made another goalscoring debut, netting a brace in an EFL cup triumph at Peterborough in August 2016. This led to his Premier League debut that weekend, as an 86th minute substitute in a 2-1 defeat at Leicester. McBurnie made another four Premier League appearances that season (84th minute sub in a 3-0 win over Sunderland, 57th minute sub in a 3-0 defeat to Bournemouth, 71st minute sub in a 4-0 defeat to Arsenal and 75th minute sub in a 3-1 defeat to Tottenham) McBurnie was however prolific in the Under 23's Football League Trophy campaign, netting five goals in four games, helping them finish second in the Southern Section Group B and then scoring the winner in the Second Round victory over Norwich. He also scored the Swans goal in their 1-1 draw with Coventry in the Quarter-Finals but they were eliminated on penalties.
Midfielder Gary Gardner has arrived until May from Championship rivals Aston Villa; the 25 year old was born in the Midlands and came through the ranks at Villa Park. Gardner suffered a cruciate knee ligament injury early on in his career and therefore his professional debut actually came away from the club- a four game stint at Coventry in 2011 where he scored on his debut in a 2-1 defeat at Brighton in the November.
Gardner finally made his Villa bow on New Year's Eve 2011 in Villa's 3-1 win at Chelsea and has gone on to make a further 45 appearances for the Villains, 27 of which came in the Championship last season and he has also enjoyed loan spells at Sheffield Wednesday (where he played three times in 2014), Brighton and Nottingham Forest.
There was also one short-term out last night as Alex Mowatt joined Oxford United for the rest of the season. Big things were expected of Mowatt when he arrived at Oakwell in January from Leeds but he got off to the worst possible start- a straight red card just 42 minutes into his debut, in a 3-1 home defeat to Wolves. He made a further 10 appearances in 2016-2017, scoring in a 3-2 defeat at Bristol City but has appeared only twice this season- starting the opening day defeat at Ashton Gate and then coming on as an 89th minute substitute in the Carabao Cup win over Morecambe.
Here is the full list of Barnsley's summer recruits:
- Stevie Mallan
- Jason McCarthy
- Liam Lindsey
- Cameron McGeehan
- Ethan Pinnock
- Zeki Fryers
- Lloyd Isgrove
- Brad Potts
- Matty Pearson
- Joe Williams
- Mamadou Thiam
- Dimitri Cavare
- Harvey Barnes
- Ike Ugbo
- Gary Gardner
- Oliver McBurnie