Barnsley boss David Flitcroft says March is a ‘ridiculous time to recruit’ and the Reds are unlikely to bring in the left-back they have been chasing before the weekend.
Flitcroft has been keen to find a replacement for the injured Scot Golbourne and is hoping for a Premier League player.
He said: “This is a ridiculous time to recruit. It always will be and always has been. No one is going to let someone go who is scoring goals or stopping goals and who is a commanding figure. The only players you can get are those that are on the periphery that people either want out or want them to go and experience something new and different like Ryan Tunnicliffe. They are usually not ready and not match fit. They’ve been playing in the development league which, for me, is football gone soft.
“To transport them into the Championship is a very difficult task.“But there’s some good players out there and we’ll try our best to get them. We keep telling people: ‘Don’t look at the league table. Speak to other players about the environment we have at this club then make your decision on that.’
“We’re having to do a lot of homework and a lot of digging and we’re getting a lot of custard pies at the minute but you wipe them out of your eyes and you start again. We are fighting hard to bring a left-back in and that fight continues.”
Flitcroft abandoned his 3-5-2 formation, which brought him so much success at first, for the trip to Burnley on Tuesday after losing Golbourne and selling John Stones to Everton.
The Reds boss said: “We’re not going to get that back. The system was perfect because we had the perfect players. To try to get another Scott Golbourne is not possible because I haven’t got £2million to do it. I’m trying to get John Stones back on loan but if I can’t I have got to look at something else. I have asked players to come in and try to recreate what we had but at the moment they haven’t.”
© 2013 Barnsley Chronicle Ltd