Neill Collins, the manager of Barnsley, acknowledges that selling Liam Kitching to Coventry City for what he calls “life-changing” money for the player has made his job “more difficult.”
Before Friday’s summer transfer deadline, Tykes chairman Neerav Parekh informed the crowd that Kitching will remain at Oakwell despite a tempting offer of £2.5 million from the Sky Blues that might rise to $3 million. He seemed to be true to his word when he rejected a second £4 million bid for the 23-year-old captain, but the club’s resolve was finally broken by a revised offer, thought to be in the neighborhood of £4.5 million.
On Friday night, the left-sided center-back passed a medical and agreed to a four-year contract with CBS Arena, becoming Mark Robins’ 11th summer addition.
Barnsley boss Collins stated following Saturday’s 2-0 win at League One’s bottom team Cheltenham Town: “We lost a very, very excellent player but we lost him for an awful lot of money which will stand the club in good stead longer-term. I can understand why it’s difficult to turn down that amount of money for a League One center-back, even though it would make my job more challenging in the near term.
Any team finds it challenging to retain a player who wants to go, and Collins acknowledged: “You always have to worry about Liam Kitching – it is a financial game-changer for him. You should honor that.
Kitching was introduced to the crowd prior to kickoff in the weekend match against Watford but missed the 3-3 tie because he wasn’t registered in time and was nursing a groin strain.