BARNSLEY chief executive officer Khaled El-Ahmad says that the Reds will do their best to keep hold of Michael Duff and the club’s star players – while admitting that certain things are beyond their control.
The Oakwell outfit lost out in heartbreaking fashion in the final seconds of Bank Holiday Monday’s League One play-off final against Sheffield Wednesday at Wembley and missed out on an instant return to the Championship in the process.
The prize of promotion would have been worth around £6m to £7m for the Reds and despite an outstanding season of renaissance, speculation is now likely to intensify regarding the future of Duff and some of his leading players.
Duff, who arrived at the club last June, has been linked with a move to managerless Yorkshire rivals Huddersfield Town.
The Terriers are searching for a new boss, having retained their status in the second tier.
Meanwhile, the club are likely to face a decision regarding influential captain Mads Andersen, who will enter the final year of his contract shortly.
Back in January, the Reds triggered 12-month options within the contracts of Andersen, keeper Brad Collins and defender Jordan Williams.
All three saw their existing deals run out this summer, but with the club having an option to extend for an additional 12 months. That was activated and they are contracted at Oakwell until June 2024.
James Norwood is also out of contract shortly, although the club have a 12-month option in their favour – should they wish to activate it.
On the future of Duff and leading players, El-Ahmad told BBC Radio Sheffield: “It’s football. I don’t necessarily look at it whether the journey is one year, two years, three years, ten years. Everyone is part of that journey.
“Duff has been great and so have the staff. Certain things we will control and certain things we can’t. We will do our best to keep Michael and also have the best possible team to compete next season.
“If you watched us today and I was a Championship club, there’s 11 players I would go and try to get. Some are under contract and we are in the driving seat with many of those decisions and whatever happens is going to be best for the club to try and build on this foundation to be competitive.
“We had already planned for both scenarios (promotion and staying down). We have a great recruitment team and staff.
“It feels tough now, but we had an idea of what we wanted to do in both scenarios. But certain things will come that we cannot control and we are going to have to be flexible and adapt and build the best possible club to move forward.
“We are going to be smart, we were competitive this year when everyone said we had one of the lower budgets. We will be smart, the owners have been great all year. It will be a collective discussion on the way to go, but hopefully we can continue to build on this.”
After suffering at the hands of officials all season, the Reds’ angst was compounded by two huge calls going against them in Monday’s final.
First, VAR awarded no penalty after Liam Kitching went down in the box following a clumsy looking challenge from Lee Gregory just after half-time.
Soon after, Gregory was the central figure when he went down following a challenge from midfielder Adam Phillips. The Reds player was controversially dismissed by referee Tim Robinson with VAR overlords backing his call.
Despite a wounding and cruel finish to the season, El-Ahmad says that pride will be the overriding emotion regarding the Reds’ progress in 2022-23, once the pain starts to subside in the days and weeks to come.
He continued: “It kind of sums up my 19 months at the club. Its the ‘Barnsley way’ – we are probably going to win in a dramatic way or lose in style.
“It was devastating for the fans and players. The effort was amazing. I thought we played good football and was proud from that perspective. But the loss hurts.
“Looking back maybe in a couple of days or months, it’s probably one of my proudest moments at the club. I’ve tried to work on the culture and bringing in Michael Duff was part of that step and he’s supported that narrative we want.
“Everything from going into the coal mines and museum. Everything builds up, so when you face adversity, they just looked around and thought ‘you know what, I am going to battle for you and with you’.
“It was a fantastic display and the football gods weren’t with us.
“Regardless of level, this is the togetherness and community we want to build and momentum and even though we didn’t go up, that momentum of club, fans and board and council comes together and at some point, that will result in a better outcome than we had.”
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