To the surprise of a lot of people, Barnsley are flying high in the Championship this season, finding themselves in the play-off places with just a month of the season left to go.

This is pretty much the same team that avoided relegation back to League One last season by the skin of their teeth, staying up because of Wigan Athletic's unfortunate demise as they plunged into administration.

But the departure of manager Gerhard Struber to New York Red Bulls has surprisingly revitalised the Tykes, as his replacement Valerien Ismael has taken them to a new level and pushed them into places fans wouldn't have expected them to go.

You'll rarely see Barnsley make a bad signing nowadays as well, with their recruitment model firmly focused on purchasing players aged 25 and under, with the likes of Michal Helik being a real success this season and the mid-season loan of Daryl Dike proving to be a master-stroke.

But let's look at some signings that didn't work out in the end for the Tykes - do you agree with them all?

The signing of Hristov in 1997 still remains to this day Barnsley's most expensive purchase, bringing the Macedonian to South Yorkshire for a fee of £1.5 million.

The Tykes had just been promoted to the Premier League for the first time and wanted a new striker to help keep them in the league, but he scored just four times in 23 appearances and those goals weren't enough to prolong Barnsley's stay in the top flight for more than a season.

His following two seasons with the club failed to impress either as the forward missed a lot of time with a knee injury, and he eventually left the club in 2000 after a miserable three years.

A much-travelled striker who knew where the back of the net was if he was feeling like playing at his top ability, Mido had turned out for footballing luminaries such as Ajax, Roma and Tottenham Hotspur earlier in his career.

Few would have expected him to end his playing days at Oakwell though, but that's exactly what he did.

The Egyptian signed in the summer of 2012 on a one-year deal at the age of 29, hoping to re-ignite his career in the Championship, but it ended up being absolutely awful.

Mido made just one appearance for the Tykes - a substitute outing in November against Huddersfield - and then never played again for the club, as he was released in January 2013.

Having showed some early promise at Arsenal, Frimpong injured his cruciate ligament in his knee for the second time in his career whilst out on loan at Wolves, and he could never regain a place in the Gunners senior squad, and signed for Barnsley permanently in 2014.

Due to his relatively brief Premier League experience, Frimpong was seen as a great signing for the Tykes, but it would go downhill very quickly.

Frimpong was sent off on his debut against Sheffield Wednesday and he would make just nine appearances that season as Barnsley were relegated to League One - the Ghanaian was released after just four months at Oakwell.

Barnsley's team in the late 2000's and early 2010's was filled with foreign talent, with Brazilians like Anderson Silva and Denis Souza turning out for the club, Spanish midfielder Diego Leon strutting his stuff amongst others.

One of the 'others' was a Peruvian striker who set Barnsley back £400,000 after scoring goals for Cienciano in his native country - that was Mostto.

The forward failed to make an impact for the club and after just six months he returned to Peru for the rest of the 2007-08 season after scoring just one Barnsley goal.

Mostto did return to Oakwell for the start of the 2008/09 campaign but quickly departed home as his son fell ill - he did return though and scored one more goal before permanently returning to Peru with Total Chalaco.

Unfortunate circumstances indeed, but Mostto never showed anything on the pitch to suggest he was worth what Barnsley spent on him.

Rankin had already moved for a fee of over £1 million when he swapped Arsenal for Bradford City in 1998, and after failing to impress for the Bantams he was moved on in 2001 to Barnsley for £350,000.

In his first two-and-a-half seasons at Oakwell, Rankin made just 26 league appearances, and despite scoring five in 20 games in the 2003/04 season, the striker was made available for transfer midway through that season.

He was taken on loan by Grimsby and he ended up scoring against Barnsley during that spell, with his celebration causing outrage with then-Tykes boss Gudjon Thordarson - Rankin's contract was terminated with immediate effect and he must go down as a flop.

Considering he had only made 21 league appearances in his career, mainly at levels below the Championship, Kpekawa was a bit of a strange signing for Barnsley in 2016 from QPR for £450,000.

He seemed very much out of his depth from his very first game and he would make just seven league appearances for the Tykes in his sole season at the club, before being sold on to Colchester United for what you'd presume to be a massive loss.

Looking back it seems like a real error of judgment, and Kpekawa's career hasn't gotten any better - he rarely played for Colchester, and then had spells at St Mirren, Billericay Town and AS Trencin in Slovakia before ending up at non-league Chelmsford City.

Another bizarre one, Rooney - the younger brother of Wayne - made a switch to the MLS after starting off at Macclesfield Town, but returned to England with Barnsley in 2012 after spells with New York Red Bulls and Orlando City.

Rooney signed in October 2012 under the management of Keith Hill, but he never played a game for the Tykes in any competition and was released at the end of the season.

Rooney went on to play the rest of his career in non-league after a brief spell at League Two side Bury, and to be fair to him he's hit double figures in the National League in the last three seasons - but he just wasn't meant to be as a Football League player.

After a career which saw him capped by England and play multiple seasons in the top flight, Curle made the short switch from Sheffield United to the Tykes in 2002.

It ended up being a complete disaster for Curle though, who played just 11 times for Barnsley before having his contract terminated by mutual consent, and at the age of 38 you got the feeling that he had just lost his legs to play in the second tier.

Curle ended his career at Mansfield Town as player-manager after that and has become a decent manager in the Football League - what Barnsley could have done to have him as a player around five years before they actually got him.

Non-scoring strikers have been a commonplace on this list, and Lita is one of those who bagged for clubs before signing for the Tykes but couldn't re-produce that form at Oakwell.

After being released by Premier League Swansea City in 2014, Lita dropped into League One with Barnsley and judging by his Championship record, a move into the third tier should have been easy pickings for him.

It didn't turn out that way though and following just two goals in 19 appearances, Lita joined Notts County on loan before being released by the Yorkshire club at the end of the season.