The financial cost of relegation is beginning to bite Barnsley after they revealed they would listen to offers for key players Chris O’Grady, Martin Cranie and Tom Kennedy.
The consequence of seeing their eight year stay in the Championship end back in May has been estimated at around £6m.
A lot of this has been offset by the release of 18 players at the beginning of July when their contracts expired, but the recent signing of £200,000 midfielder Connor Hourihane means manager Danny Wilson needs to bring in transfer funds to further boost his squad which at the moment in time contains just the aforementioned Hourihane, O’Grady, Cranie and Kennedy plus Luke Steele, Christian Dibble, Adam Davies, Lewin Nyatanga, Jean-Yves Mvoto, Kane Hemmings and Dale Jennings as experienced first team players plus the club’s crop of promising youngsters such as Reuben Noble-Lazarus and Danny Rose.
Barnsley did accept a bid of £500,000 for 15 goal top scorer O’Grady last month from Charlton Athletic, but the striker could not agree terms with the London outfit and now it appears The Reds South Yorkshire and League One rivals Sheffield United are in the hunt with their manager Nigel Clough telling the Sheffield Star:
“Chris is a possibility, but nothing has moved on to make it the right deal.”
Wilson is believed to be looking to sign up to ten more new players this summer as he tries to take the Reds back to the second tier at the first time of asking, and club captain Cranie would be an attractive proposition for several Championship outfits despite being relegated from that division with both Coventry and Barnsley.
Versatile full-back Kennedy is also free to leave and would probably only command a nominal fee. The 29 year old signed from Rochdale in August 2012 and despite impressing in his debut- a 5-0 win at Birmingham, he has often been the subject of the fans ire when things have gone wrong. He was however a key player last season, making 47 appearances.