After the transfer window slammed shut for the summer on Thursday night at 11pm, Reds Head Coach Paul Heckingbottom left Barnsley for the weekend.
Following time away to re-charge the batteries over the international break, Hecky wanted to send a message to the fans of the Club about the business during the summer window at Oakwell.
"The transfer window is always hectic. It probably wasn’t good for anyone to be doing business so late but we still needed to do it and we’re really pleased with what we got done. As a squad now, we’ve got competition all over the pitch and I think we’ve definitely strengthened overall.
"Transfer windows whilst you’re playing are hard work and not ideal. You feel like you can just get on with your job once they are over, but we needed to make sure we got certain players in and I am pleased with what we did, we’ll be better off for that now for the rest of the season.
"I had a few days away after the window which was good. I came back in this morning following a break where I would say I turned my phone off but I couldn’t get any signal anyway so it was great. It was time where I managed to switch off, the same as what I did last year so it was really good for me to have a couple of days away from everything. I was focusing on things that really should be a distraction, when my focus should always just be on the players in the team. That’s what I will be doing now for the rest of the season and trying to fight for everything to get done that will be important for us during the rest of the season.
"We wanted competition in every place and I think we have got that now. Looking at it overall, we’re probably a few bodies too heavy as I would gladly work with 22, but we’ve got more so there’s competition everywhere meaning players are going to have to work and fight hard. They’ll be helping each other through it as well, because they are fighting for a shirt but we want to be in a position where making changes doesn't damage anything, it only makes us stronger. Nobody has success on their own, it’s always a group thing. Not just the starting eleven, it’s the staff as well in every part of the Club, we’re all in it together, I have always said that.
"We’ll be learning about these players as we go, hopefully everyone in that squad is good enough but we don’t know that for sure yet so we’ll have to wait and see. Everyone will be pushed though we can assure them of that and if everyone is good enough then that’s even better, we’ll have a good group of players who will push each other onto good things.
"I am happy, but this is where the work starts because we’ve got all the players in now. We’ve always been adding players in week on week, it’s not that the players are behind but we need to integrate them into what we want to do with them in the team and all that starts now because we’ve got players who were here last season and know it, some who joined in pre-season that are beginning to learn it and some who have just joined now who need to learn. It’s going to be good, it’ll be interesting and we can see how good a group of players we’ve got. I know they give everything and they’ve certainly shown to the fans that they are desperate to do well, as long as they’re doing that we’ll be happy with them.
"We don’t need to re-integrate Yids as he was always in the squad, all he’s doing is getting over his injury. It did look like he would be going again on transfer deadline day but nothing happened in time. Speaking to Yids, he’s just relieved this is all over and he can focus solely on his football again now and recovery. It’s never down to the player if they go, it’s up to the Club if they accept the money and terms. Twice it was deemed that we had got the deal we wanted, and twice it hasn’t come off so it was unsettling for him but he’s just glad the window is shut now and he can focus on getting fit. I’m delighted he’s still here, he was one of our best players last season and he’s only making the squad stronger.
"Enjoy the season, continue to look forward to games and keep doing what you’ve been doing. You’ve got to help these players, nobody knows what we’ve got in the dressing room yet, not even me. There’s lots of things we need to get better at but we’ve been adding new players all the time so we’ve been evolving. We’ve got more strength in depth than we’ve had in the previous couple of seasons, but how good that makes us I don’t know.
"Whilst the lads are giving everything like they are doing, the fans need to stick behind them as they’ve got a big part to play in helping these players. Where we recruit from and the age of the players, it’s a big ask but they’re giving everything and have beaten already some big teams for this division, we need everyone to keep working together and this will continue."
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