By TarnTalk
July 15 2025

Rumours are doing the rounds that League One rivals Wycombe Wanderers have had a £1.3 million bid accepted by club. Barnsley have denied reports of any offer being accepted but it is clear that Wycombe are interested in signing the reds skipper.

Personally, I would like Connell to stay and feel that £1.3 million is a long way short of his valuation. I do however believe that the best thing for Connell himself would be a move away from the toxicity at Oakwell. 

It is true that he hasn’t quite reached the heights of his very first season under Duff due to illness, but he has still been very good regardless.

A poor Connell is far better than the majority of midfielders in League One. Even if he isn’t at his best on the ball, he is easily a six out of ten with what he brings off it in terms of work rate and defensive ability.

The fact that the fans turned on him last season clearly affected his confidence, and I feel he can only reach his true potential away from Barnsley.

Our fans have a tendency to do this to our players and a tendency to do it to our better ones whilst drooling over absolute dross just because they put a shift in. Phillips is another the fans have turned on slightly and like many others that the fans deemed not good enough – Williams, Styles, Cole, Cadden to name but a few – these two will go on to play at a higher level whilst Barnsley remain stuck in League One or worse.

When players of Connell’s ability have a dip in form then fans compare them to how they were previously and judge them to be playing poorly. When in fact if you take that out of the equation and just judge them on how they are performing comparatively to everyone else on the pitch then they would actually realise that in the vast majority of games that Connell has indeed been one of our best players.

Booing him when coming on and cheering him when substituted is something no fans should do to one of their own players, yet both of these happened to our captain last season. It does the player and the team no good whatsoever and can have a severe knock-on effect for both going forwards.

Connell being captain is another issue. Almost every fan in the ground wanted him to be captain in the previous season when it was Williams. Then last season every single one of them was saying that he shouldn’t be captain. Our fans do like to single out the captain for extra criticism and as most of our fans are sheep they just jump on that band wagon.

Williams was the right captain that season and Connell was the right successor. I do think however if Connell remains then the weight of the captaincy should be given to someone else to allow him to concentrate on playing and getting back to his best. When Williams was captain, Connell was the one constantly talking and organising. Which he also did when Andersen was captain. Williams was good with the individual praise and geeing up. Last season Connell talked and organised less and less as the season went on which is a sign of the captaincy or fans getting to him which is why I do think that the captaincy should go elsewhere.

I would love Connell to stay, and I don’t think it is possible to replace him with someone as good at this level. I do however think for the sake of his own career that he should get as far away from Barnsley as possible. And mark my word Barnsley fans who think he is crap; he is levels above where this team is at the moment. And if ever any proof was needed at how bad our fan base are at judging players, then Williams and Styles are cases in point.

COYR