Football Season Guide

Barnsley overachieved in their first season back in the Championship last term but struggled in the second half of the campaign when it became clear that they would finish mid-table. The Tykes are continuing their policy of buying young and exciting talent with a view to selling them on. They sold Sam Winnall, Conor Hourihane and James Bree midway through last season and have now also lost Josh Scowen, Marc Roberts and Marley Watkins. They have signed Luton's Cameron McGeehan and defenders Liam Lindsay, Ethan Pinnock and Jason McCarthy. They may be somewhat lightweight up-front and struggle for goals unless they can address that gap in their side. Paul Heckingbottom has also proven himself to be an excellent man manager. This season may well be a little tougher than the first, as they carried through the initial momentum of promotion and also performed very poorly in the latter end of last term. Oakwell is traditionally a tough place for away teams to visit and Barnsley will hope to use that to their favour. They ended pre-season with a disappointing local derby 4-0 defeat at Rotherham and that will not provide them with too much confidence going into the campaign.