Barnsley could be set for another January of discontent with star players leaving. 11 months ago they saw 12 goal leading scorer Ricardo Vaz Te leave for West Ham on transfer deadline day and key midfielder Danny Drinkwater’s loan was cut short in the same month as he departed for Leicester City. Following this, Keith Hill’s men won just two of the final 18 matches and survived relegation only due to Portsmouth’s 10-point deduction.
Now the cash strapped Oakwell club are facing the same scenario with Hill admitting the board may not be able to fend off decent bids for this season’s top scorer Craig Davies and number one goal-keeper Luke Steele.
Both players are out of the contract in the summer, and the club can ill afford to see them leave on free transfers if they refuse to commit to new deals. Steele, who has been at Oakwell for four years recently reiterated his determination to stay, but 26 year old Davies who has hit nine goals in 16 games in 2012-2013, including four in the 5-0 demolition of Birmingham could be looking at a move higher up the football pyramid.
Meanwhile Hill has confirmed he will not be re-signing Brazilian midfielder Anderson De Silva. The 30 year old who netted five goals in an 83 game spell with The Reds between 2007 and 2010 had been training at Oakwell after leaving Uruguayan outfit Nacional. However the former Everton man has decided to return to his native South America after finding a better deal there.