Sam Winnall has committed what many Barnsley supporters class as the unforgivable sin after agreeing to sign for fierce rivals Sheffield Wednesday.
The 25 year old who has netted 11 times in 23 appearances in his first ever season in the Championship, including seven in his last nine, was out of contract in the summer and had refused to sign a new one. It was expected Winnall would remain at Oakwell for the season and then leave for free (as owner Patrick Cryne had hinted in a Q&A session last summer) but the Owls have put in a bid – believed to be around £500,000- and Winnall intimated he would like to talk to them.
Personal terms were agreed last night and photo evidence showed him signing his contract at Hillsborough today, although neither club have given an official announcement yet to show respect to the funeral of Barnsley legend Norman Rimmington which took place this afternoon.
In total, Sam Winnall who joined from Scunthorpe United in the summer of 2014 made 116 appearances for The Reds, scoring 48 goals, which included a fantastic record of 41 from 79 league starts. He bagged 24 times in last season’s promotion and Johnstone’s Paint Trophy double, the most any Barnsley player has scored in a single season since Ronnie Glavin in 1979-1980. During his time at Oakwell Winnall became the first player to score more than 21 goals in a season since Craig Hignett in 1999-2000 and the first Red to score two hat-tricks for the club since Michael Chopra.
It is now believed that Grimsby Town’s Omar Bogle could be set to replace Winnall at Oakwell with Barnsley evens favourite’s with the bookmakers. 24-year-old Bogle joined the Mariners from non-league Solihull in the summer of 2015 and has scored 31 goals in 51 starts, including 18 so far this season making him League Two’s top scorer. Ironically Winnall was also League Two’s top scorer when he joined Barnsley, having bagged 23 to help Scunthorpe win promotion.