It has been one in out at Oakwell today after right back James Bree completed his expected move to Aston Villa and Leicester City midfielder Matty James arrived on loan.
19 year old Bree had been at Barnsley since the age of 12 and become the club’s second youngest player (after Reuben Noble-Lazarus) when he made his first team debut aged 16 as a 73rd minute substitute for Jean-Yves Mvoto against QPR in 2014 when Barnsley were relegated from the Championship.
The Wakefield born defender established himself during The Reds two year stay in League One however he missed both Wembley trips last season.
The fee to take Bree to Villa Park is believed to be in the region of £2m with a further £1m in add ons (likely to be if Villa win promotion). He is still expected to be joined in the Midlands by captain Conor Hourihane but at the time of writing this is yet to be confirmed.
However Barnsley seem to have pre-empted Hourihane’s departure (and the loss of Sam Morsy who decided to stay at Wigan) by signing James from Premier League champions Leicester City for the rest of the season.
The 25 year old moved to the King Power stadium in the summer of 2012 from Preston and played 40 times as the Foxes won promotion to the top flight in 2013-2014 as Championship champions.
The Manchester United graduate then played 29 times as Leicester, under Nigel Pearson pulled off the great escape of surviving relegation despite being rock bottom in mid March.
Heartbreakingly a cruel, serious knee injury saw him miss all of 2015-2016 when Leicester pulled off the greatest title shock in history and he has made only three appearances under Claudio Ranieri this season- two of which have come in the EFL Trophy.
There could be even more departures from Oakwell before the transfer window closes after reports have come out that Marley Watkins has handed in a transfer request. The 26 year old has scored six times this season but more crucially is only second to Hourihane in the Championship assists stakes this season with seven. According to BBC Radio Sheffield, Barnsley are set to reject the request although they could still cash in on Watkins who like Hourihane, Bree and the already departed Sam Winnall, sees his Barnsley contract expire this summer.