It may be unlucky for some but Barnsley have now made 13 summer signings following the double arrival of Harvey Barnes and Mamadou Thiam yesterday.
Barnes was first through the door, joining on a season long loan from Leicester City. The 19-year-old has just had a blistering summer, jointly winning the Golden Boot at the Toulon Tournament, which England won after netting braces in his country’s 7-1 victory over Cuba and 3-0 semi-final success over Scotland.
He has been with the Foxes academy since the age of nine and he made his debut in the Champions League last season, coming on as a 76th minute substitute in a 5-0 defeat at Porto. Following this Barnes went on loan to League One MK Dons in January and he scored in both of his first two games – a 5-3 win over Northampton and 4-0 triumph at Peterborough. He went on to net four times more including on the final day of the season with the Dons winning all six games in which he netted, thus earning him the club’s Young Player of the Year award despite only being there for five months.
The late season form at Stadium: MK saw Barnes rewarded with a new four year deal at the King Power Stadium and he will now attempt to make the step up again at Championship level with Barnsley.
Coming hot on the heels of Barnes arrival is the intriguing capture of striker Mamadou Thiam from Dijon FC who play in the French top flight – Ligue 1.
The 22 year old who can play upfront or on the wing has signed a three-year deal at Oakwell after arriving for an undisclosed fee, which is believed to be around £900,000.
Thiam was prolific for the Dijon B team between 2013 and 2015, netting 13 times in 32 appearances before being sent on loan to Ligue 2 side Clermont in 2016 where he netted 8 times in 34 games, helping them to a 12th place finish.
Thiam also appeared 25 times for Dijon, scoring three times.