CONOR Hourihane said at the end of last week that Barnsley’s home games with Stevenage and Northampton Town plus the deadline day in-between them were a ‘really important moment’ and would ‘paint a picture of where everyone sees the club going.’

On the pitch, it has been a fairly pretty picture with four valuable points and some good football played at times, but the deadline day, for many fans, resembled a dystopian hellscape. He has resembled a novice artist beginning to craft a promising piece before having one of his key tools sold with little to no adequate replacement.

Hourihane’s statement last week could easily have been taken as a message from an ambitious, dedicated and driven young manager – if also someone who has made mistakes this season – to everyone at the club that, if those days did not go well, the Reds would be in serious trouble. His ‘it is what it is’ response after Tuesday’s game was diplomatic but there is no getting away from the fact that deadline day went badly.

It must have been a frustrating 35th birthday for Hourihane on Monday as, although he was pleased to reunite with former team-mate Tom Bradshaw and keep the sought-after Reyes Cleary, Davis Keillor-Dunn’s sale to Wrexham leaves a huge hole in their attack.

Overall, it would be difficult to argue the squad has been made much better in this window. Any improvements in the centre-back and wing areas – where they now have more options Hourihane is happy with – are offset by the departure of their talismanic top-scorer and the lack of depth up front.

It is a recurring theme in recent windows that Barnsley fall one or two crucial signings short – usually in the forward areas – of building the squad they want.

They are obviously lacking the pacy striker Hourihane wanted to add to his options.

They had all window to find one and all the preparation time in the first half of the season when it was obvious that was what they lacked. For those of us on the outside, it is hard to imagine there was no loan forward available who was at least worth a shot, even if having six loans would mean one would have to be left out of every matchday squad as five is the maximum.

Not reinvesting the Keillor-Dunn fee with a permanent transfer shows the board did not feel they would get value for money in the final hours of the winter window, and wanted to wait until the summer.

But it will come across like an acceptance of mid-table at best this season which is galling for fans and must be similar for players and staff. They look very likely now to be outside the top two tiers for five years for the first time since the 1970s.

The reaction to deadline day from fans online has been furious, with constant calls for the owners to leave, but the supporters in the stadium on Tuesday got behind the team.

The Reds have the 13th biggest budget in a lightly-regulated division in which other clubs’ owners are not adhering to the ‘spend what you earn’ principle Barnsley’s board want to stick to while losing millions a year.

The owners appear to be hanging their hat on the idea that stronger spending rules will be enforced in the near future which will level the playing field but, for now, it feels like the Reds are being left behind in the division below where they have traditionally played most of their football.

Past mistakes continue to haunt them – they still have big-earning Kelechi Nwakali playing in the under 21s.

It was always going to take time to see Hourihane’s ‘reset’ through and this is only his second window, while he is working with several talented youngsters on long-term contracts such as Cleary who the Reds rejected bids of up to £3million for.

Barnsley are six points clear of the bottom four with games in hand. They just need to focus on growing that gap with some tough games ahead in the next few days.

NOT ENOUGH UP FRONT

Barnsley are badly lacking in depth up front. Their only strikers are David McGoldrick, 38, and Tom Bradshaw, 33, unless you include 20-year-old Leo Farrell who Hourihane has said is not yet ready for League One. McGoldrick, who is on fine form at the moment, and Bradshaw have undoubted quality and experience but – with Barnsley playing every four days until the end of the season – it is surely nowhere near enough and you wonder if their bodies will cope.

Especially when the Reds appeared to have made a breakthrough with the success of playing two strikers together on Saturday.

They will still look in the free agent market but Hourihane did not seem confident on that.

In terms of other positions, they have strengthened on the wings although Charlie Lennon and Tawana Chirewa have only played ten minutes between them so far.

They have enough quantity to cover the back four even if the quality is in doubt with the fewest clean sheets in the EFL and 69 goals conceded in all competitions.

Left-back is a slight doubt with Nathanael Ogbeta rarely getting a long run of games while Georgie Gent is clearly not fully fit after his long injury.

Patrick Kelly’s performances in midfield have been superb recently but Luca Connell has had a really tough 2026 and a possible move to Luton on Monday did not happen.

INCOMINGS BETTER THAN LAST YEAR

Last January, the Reds brought in Clement Rodrigues, Jon Lewis, Dexter Lembikisa, Joe Gauci and Neil Farrugia – all of whom have now left after making barely any impact as the team tumbled out of the play-off places into mid-table obscurity and changed manager yet again.

Then boss Darrell Clarke has recently surfaced on LinkedIn saying he had a disagreement with the board over the quality of the squad – chairman Neerav Parekh believed it was a ‘top three squad’ – and that led to the lack of major recruitment in the January, with him soon being sacked in mid-March and replaced by Hourihane.

In terms of the individual signings, this January has been better – like last summer was better than the summer before – as you can understand the motives behind the moves while several of the new men have made promising starts. Their recruitment hit-rate looks to be gradually improving but they have still left some gaping holes, with many new players only contracted until the summer.

Hourihane has had more responsibility for transfers than some of his predecessors and – following the exit of sporting director Mladen Sormaz in September – worked closely with chief executive Jon Flatman, owners Parekh and James Cryne plus the recruitment department to bring players in.

The new recruits have not played often in the first half of the season.

The Reds have added to their squad three players who struggled for gametime at other League One clubs before Christmas in Owen Goodman and Scott Banks plus Corey O’Keeffe who was sent back by Stockport.

Lennon played regularly at Darlington but in the sixth tier and Hourihane has repeatedly said he is not ready for League One.

Eoghan O’Connell had not played for five months after leaving Wrexham, Chirewa has not started since Zimbabwe faced Lesotho in October and Tom Bradshaw not since August with Oxford in the EFL Cup.

It is a notoriously tough window to recruit in, with anyone performing for their club week in, week out much more difficult to sign – especially on Barnsley’s limited budget.

You could make an ultra-optimistic argument that the lack of minutes in the new signings’ legs until this point will help during the brutal run of games to come.

But we must hope that going from barely playing to playing every four days does not cause any injuries.

LOOKING FURTHER AHEAD

Now the window has closed, off the field attention will turn to the summer window and who Barnsley keep of their out of contract players.

Hourihane recently said that, after working ‘non-stop’ in training to improve the Reds’ defence, he came to the conclusion that new defenders were needed – but, other than bringing in Eoghan O’Connell, the overhaul would have to wait until the summer due to financial constraints. They tried to move on defenders to make space for replacements but could not do so.

Most of his current centre-back options are out of contract in the summer – O’Connell, Marc Roberts, Jack Shepherd, Mael de Gevigney and occasional stand-in from right-back Tennai Watson.

Only Josh Earl and loaned-out duo Kacper Lopata and Connor Barratt have deals that definitely run until 2027.

But the Reds could use their options to keep both Shepherd and de Gevigney for another year.

Shepherd is seen as one of the club’s ‘assets’ for the future but de Gevigney has lost form and confidence in the last year and is well down the pecking order – so he seems highly likely to be released.

What happens with the others could depend on the rest of this season but, overall, there is a major opportunity in the summer to move on most of the defensive personnel and start afresh.

The first choice goalkeeper Owen Goodman and left-back Nathanael Ogbeta are both on loan.

Barnsley will still be on a limited budget but they can rebuild to the head coach’s requirements and test the chairman’s theory that James Cryne’s greater involvement in recruitment will improve the quality of the incomings.

We can safely assume that the loan players who are out of contract will all be released – Andy Dallas, Barry Cotter, Jon Russell and Max Watters – freeing up some wages.

Hourihane will then have a decision to make about whether he gives further contracts to close friends David McGoldrick, who is scoring freely but will be into his 40th year next season, and Roberts, 35, who has been patchy with form and fitness and now appears to be a substitute.

The Reds will surely exercise the option in Adam Phillips’ deal and, while it is doubtful they will ever get the fee they once wanted for the 28-year-old, he is still a high-level player for the third division.

Barnsley currently have no senior strikers contracted beyond the summer.