BARNSLEY want to sign up to three strikers in the final fortnight of the transfer window while Callum Styles looks very likely to leave the club.

Styles could be set for a permanent move to a Championship club with negotiations thought to have reached an advanced stage earlier this week.

But it is a complicated situation with, potentially, a striker joining the Reds in the opposite direction.

The 24-year-old Hungary international played in the final two pre-season games but was not involved in either match this week with head coach Darrell Clarke saying his mindset was not right due to interest from other clubs.

Styles – who has played 151 times for the Reds across six years – is thought to have a release clause of about £2million but it is unclear if the Reds have accepted less or by how much.

Speaking yesterday morning, Clarke told the Chronicle: “One minute it’s close, the next minute it’s not.

“It’s not doing the lad any favours mentally.

“For me, it’s part of football management and you have to adapt.

“I have had a good chat with Stylesy.

“If something manoeuvres, it manoeuvres. If not I know I have got his heart and mind. I won’t cut my nose to spite my face.

“We understand where we’re both coming from. I won’t cold-shoulder him.”

The EFL summer transfer window is due to shut a fortnight today, on August 30 at 11pm. The Reds – who began their League One season with a 2-1 home defeat to Mansfield Town on Friday and visit Lincoln City tomorrow – have so far brought in seven players this window.

After welcoming recent arrivals goalkeeper Gabriel Slonina and midfielder Kelechi Nwakali, they are now focusing almost exclusively on recruiting strikers.

They are understood to have a shortlist of four or five names and are hoping to land several of them in the final two weeks of the window, but it is unlikely to happen before next week.

Mansfield’s Davis Keillor-Dunn has been one of their main targets all summer. The two clubs were thought to have been close to agreeing a fee last week but, after the Stags did not want him to move before Friday’s match, they are understood to have demanded a fee of £750,000 which the Reds have so far been reluctant to pay.

It is unclear if they will be able to agree a deal for the 26-year-old who started for the visitors on Friday then scored for them on Tuesday in the cup.

Clarke told the Chronicle: “We’re looking for two stroke three strikers.

“Competition for places is obviously what we need and we need some real quality in that area of the pitch.

“I keep mentioning it and it’s what we’re trying to bring in.

“24/7, I am thinking about what’s needed. Recruitment is ever moving.”

He added: “We’re in for players.

“Clubs don’t want to lose top strikers.

“It’s about bargaining and getting the player at the right price.

“Top teams have four or five top strikers that’s what we need to get to and I am sure we will do.”

With Fabio Jalo injured, the Reds have started this week, against Mansfield then at Wigan in the EFL Cup, with combination of Max Watters and Sam Cosgrove – after they were both mainly back-ups last season – and youngster Aiden Marsh. All three have missed significant chances.

Asked if waiting until the end of the window to recruit strikers might harm the promotion-chasing Reds’ chances of picking up early points in a competitive league, Clarke told the Chronicle: “Obviously we want a good start.

“There are opportunities players need to take. In a perfect world you get players in as quickly but it’s not a perfect world. Let’s see where we are at at the end of the window.”

With Styles not currently available, summer signing Georgie Gent is the only left wing-back in the squad, although the right-footed Kyran Lofthouse has also played there and Josh Earl has been used as a left-back in a 4-4-2.

Clarke said that ‘might be’ an area they are also considering recruiting in.

The Reds are expected to loan some players out later in the window.

The likely candidates include Marsh – if other strikers come in – and defender Kacper Lopata.

Conor McCarthy, another centre-back, is currently set to stay as competition for the first team defence.

Goalkeeper Jackson Smith may also be loaned out following the season of Slonina.

Clarke also mentioned that central midfielders could move on after the Reds signed Nigerian international midfielder Nwakali.

Clarke said: “He hasn’t done much pre-season and we haven’t got his visa yet so he can’t train with us yet.

“But we have healthy competition in midfield. It’s not an area where we’re desperate.”