Darrell Clarke ‘respects and understands people’s frustrations’ as Barnsley look to bring in key signings with a week remaining in the transfer window.
The Reds, who have so far recruited left wing-back Neil Farrugia, are thought to be looking to bring in at least a striker and goalkeeper before the deadline a week today.
They are also trying to offload some of the fringe players who are not in Clarke’s long-term plans, and send some young players out on loan for experience.
Clarke told the Chronicle: “It’s busy every day. I know how much work is going on behind the scenes but I respect and understand people’s frustrations. We have players who need to go which frees up other options and it’s a balancing act. When I came in I said I would need two or three wins to get the squad where I would like it to be. We’ll keep working hard.”
Clarke was very frustrated after Saturday’s 1-0 home loss to Stevenage – saying they ‘need help’ in the window and some long-serving players ‘hadn’t hit the heights’ and some looked ‘mentally shot at home.’
Asked if that poor performance altered his opinion on how much business was needed this window, Clarke said: “The plans haven’t changed in my mind on where we need to strengthen and what we need to do.
“What I will say is, it’s my job to make sure I get our players mentally right and not shot so they can play confidence. I thought we’d turned the corner at home with two wins at the start of the year but Saturday was another disappointing permanence. It isn’t a quick fix and it will be one of my biggest achievements to turn the home form around here.
“I have to get the players in the right place but they can help themselves by performing. They are a good set of lads to manage but I want more quality at times.”
Barnsley now visit second-placed Wycombe tomorrow.
Clarke said: “We need a reaction. It’s a frustrating group to manage because we go to some really good highs and play some really good football at times and then Saturday, watching it back, some of our quality was really poor. It’s not for a lack of effort. “We’re playing a big, robust, strong team but we went too long then we couldn’t find ten or 15 yard passes and made the wrong decisions in the final third.
“We haven’t had that for while. Expected goals has been very high for a long period of time but on Saturday it was very very poor. “That shows the quality of the performance was nowhere near where we needed it.”
