Evil Daily Mail reporting it so I won't paste the link. Barnsley have pulled off a coup by signing Austrian defender Manuel Maranda ahead of competition from the Bundesliga. The 21-year old centre back had offers from Freiburg and Dinamo Dresden but is joining Championship side Barnsley for £600,000 from Austrian side FC Wacker. Maranda, an Austria U21 international, has agreed a four year contract after being convinced by manager Daniel Stendel to join. Conversations with Stendel are understood to have convinced the player that the move can prove a stepping stone for him to get into the Premier League. Barnsley are backed by new investment and are looking at a number of potential young additions to bolster their promotion chances. A solid season this year saw Barnsley storm to promotion, finishing second in League One with a final points haul of 91 - just three adrift of champions Lincoln.
I liked the phrase "stormed" and then saw a finished behind Lincoln so not that impressive! Hope its true though cos it shows Daniel's plotting away for our championship campaign.
It says about us being a stepping stone to the Prem. Hmm, 4 year contract, highly rated. Big future sale worth millions, hopefully.
Reading the article in the Mail, the lad sounds as though he could be a promising signing. Only downside is that in all probability, its now looking increasingly likely that from what we have been hearing over the past few weeks, Lindsay could be moving on. To me, that would be a shame, because Pinnock and Lindsay were really developing as a defensive pairing and it will take time for any new player to bed in. In today's market, £600k is not a large amount to pay , but as far as we are concerned, it could be a positive sign that in the future, the Board just might be prepared to pay a little bit more to get a better calibre of player to join the Club. One real positive I take from the article, is that Daniel Stendel sounds as though he was heavily involved in convincing the lad to join us. Could be wide of the mark, but to me, he's hardly likely to do that, unless he didn't intend staying at the Club himself.
I reckon Knasmullner is the most expensive Barnsley signing I never saw play. He made just three appearances for us, one start and two from the bench, all away from home, and I didn't go to any of them. I'm sure there are many that can match that, anyone beat it?
Phil Gridelet must have cost comparatively just as much if not more, if adjusted for inflation. He was the most expensive non-league player ever at the time wasn't he? Around 200k if I remember correctly. Roughly what we paid for David Currie I think, if not more. And certainly a lot more than we paid for Taggart or Fleming.
I think he would have been much better if he was part of Daniels squad. But understand moving him on. Thought he showed some good touches at Cardiff. And that was under the direction of Morais!
Isn't Lindsay in the final year of his contract now? That means that if he won't sign an extension, he's probably going to move on. I can imagine they want to get someone in before losing him though, as we've also already lost Jackson. And you don't want to have to scramble for getting anyone in at the last minute. I'm sure they'd rather risk not selling Lindsay (for now) than have just the one central defender left.
Think both Pinnock and Lindsay only have one year left. So if we are continuing the policy of letting players leave if they refuse to extend then we could be starting the season with an entirely new CB pairing.