Lee Johnson feels that his squad is ‘light’ but says Barnsley are planning moves in the summer now rather than January additions.

The head coach has secured a one-week extension to the loan of central defender Kevin Long until January 30 while Lloyd Isgrove’s spell at Oakwell will now last until the end of the season.

The Reds have moved out of the relegation zone with four wins in five League One games and Johnson hinted that the club’s improved position has resulted in them looking longer-term for players.

He told the Chronicle: “Things change in football by mood, fan mood, attendances, being in the cup or not, sales of former players. There are so many things that can shape a transfer window.

“That’s why it’s exciting for everybody. We’re assessing it every day. The goal posts change every day depending on all those things. Results shape transfer policy.

"If it was my money then I’d think: ‘Have we got a chance of promotion? Have we got a chance of relegation?’ If we’re mid-table and not going to go up or go down then you’d probably save money and play your younger players and see how that goes.

“This division is so open that you could go on a run and we have got to make sure it’s us. I think we are light as far as numbers and back-up and, in a greedy world, you’d have a squad with two players for every position but the realism is you can’t always have that. So you have to use your youth sporadically off the bench.

“We’ve got many plans in place. We are looking at players that are out of contract in the summer that you might be able to sign on a pre-contract now and players that are out of contract in the summer that might be getting paid up from their respective clubs.

"It’s succession planning and it’s important. If you don’t do it, you get caught on the hop.  We’ve had a couple of discussions with players that are out of contract and it’s legal to do so given that they are over 24.”

Johnson says there have been no bids for his players yet this January and that the Reds would only sell if they got a very good offer. Similarly, if a player on their wanted list became available, they need to be in a position to move fast.

He added: “There’s always interest in our players. You never know in football but we hope to retain all our players unless we get an offer that we feel we can’t turn down.  Ideally we’d love to keep this group but we are a club in League One and some times offers are too good to turn down.

“A lot of things change very quickly in January and there’s a real domino effect. We just have to make sure we are well-placed and ready if something pops up that we fancy. At the moment I wouldn’t say that there’s anything as far as major spendage going on on the transfer front but things change quickly.”

Barnsley have former Reading and Burnley defender Andre Bikey, 31, training with them. They are monitoring the 25-cap Cameroon international’s fitness.

Johnson said: “His last club was in India and I think he’s just getting back into the swing of it really. We know what he can do ability wise. We just wanted to check his fitness and if he will fit into what we are trying to do.”