Marked for Thomas Collins
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Jul 2030
A fracture rules Thomas Collins out for 17 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Barnsley will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market1 Jul 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdulrahman Al-Obaid will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Barnsley the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad1 Jul 2030
Mason Melia in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Barnsley this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Jul 2030
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jacopo La Viola is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Boardroom1 Jul 2030
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Squad1 Jul 2030
Corey O'Keeffe falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match22 Jun 2030
The run at home goes on for Barnsley
27 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad24 Jun 2030
Defences have started doubling up on Dujuan Richards
21 goals and a season average of 7.69 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad24 Jun 2030
A fracture rules Thomas Collins out for 24 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Barnsley will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad24 Jun 2030
Mason Melia was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match22 Jun 2030
Three points for Barnsley, 2‑1 the final word against Barnet in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings24 Jun 2030
Ninety minutes of Dujuan Richards at his very best
Marked 8.44. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Barnsley.
Squad24 Jun 2030
Words at Barnsley training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Corey O'Keeffe is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 Jun 2030
A fracture rules Thomas Collins out for 31 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Barnsley will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings17 Jun 2030
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Jun 2030
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market17 Jun 2030
Add another name to the list: Sheffield United have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Owura Edwards. The answer from Barnsley has not changed — yet.
Squad17 Jun 2030
Defences have started doubling up on Anis Ben Slimane
16 goals and a season average of 7.33 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad17 Jun 2030
Mason Melia in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Barnsley this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match15 Jun 2030
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market17 Jun 2030
Tranmere Rovers are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Barnsley will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Market17 Jun 2030
Ryan Yates linked with a move away
The name of Ryan Yates keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Barnsley say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match8 Jun 2030
Barnsley make home a hard place to visit
26 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Match8 Jun 2030
Whatever happens, Barnsley do not lose
14 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Match8 Jun 2030
3‑0, and Dujuan Richards took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Barnsley tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Squad10 Jun 2030
20 goals and a season average of 7.68. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad10 Jun 2030
A fracture rules Thomas Collins out for 38 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Barnsley will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad10 Jun 2030
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market10 Jun 2030
Jaden Mears has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Barnsley they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad10 Jun 2030
Mason Melia was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.