BARNSLEY’S summer transfer activities could be boosted by their former captain Liam Kitching’s promotion to the Premier League with Coventry City which triggered a substantial six-figure windfall for the Reds, the Chronicle understands.
The defender was sold to the Sky Blues in 2023 for a deal worth about £4.5million including all clauses.
One of the clauses was a pay-out if the Sky Blues reached the Premier League which they did this season.
The agreed sum was believed to be up to a million but calculated based on how much Kitching played.
He has made 88 league starts across three seasons for the Sky Blues including 37 in the promotion campaign.
Kitching’s former club Forest Green Rovers will also pocket some of the fee from Barnsley.
Goalkeeper Brad Collins also joined Coventry from Barnsley but has been out on loan to Burton Albion so there is not thought to be any similar windfall from that deal.
The figure the Reds have received for Kitching is thought to be hundreds of thousands of pounds and will be a welcome boost for a club losing millions every year and who face a significant summer rebuild with large gaps in the first team squad under returning head coach Daniel Stendel.
The number of new arrivals this summer could potentially reach double figures.
Their only striker is 20-year-old Leo Farrell who has never started in the EFL while they are in talks with 18-goal top-scorer David McGoldrick over a new deal although he has other suitors.
Tom Bradshaw – the only player who played under Stendel in his last stint from 2018 to 2019 – was on loan to the Reds last season and has since been released by Oxford.
It is unclear at this stage whether the Reds will look to sign striker Bradshaw, who turns 34 this summer, on a permanent deal.
As for the other loanees for the second half of the season, Tawanda Chirewa and Nathanael Ogbeta are not expected to return. Goalkeeper Owen Goodman and Scott Banks remain under contract at Crystal Palace and St Pauli respectively so, if they were to come back, it would very likely be on loan.
As well as McGoldrick, Barnsley are negotiating with centre-back Eoghan O’Connell.
The 30-year-old Irish defender signed a short-term deal in January.
They look set for a battle to keep star player Reyes Cleary who registered the most assists in the EFL last season and achieved 22 goal contributions in total.
The 22-year-old has two years remaining on his current contract plus an extra year option in favour of the Reds who turned down bids of up to £3million for him in the January transfer window.
The summer transfer window is due to open on June 15 although clubs can sign players before then on pre-contract agreements. The fixtures will be released on June 25 with the league season due to start on August 15, a week after the EFL Cup first round.
