Barnsley CEO Dane Murphy has had his say on whether he believes the club underestimated the Championship following their promotion from League One, adamant they understood the challenge at hand.

The Tykes were looking to put to rest a topsy-turvy few seasons that have seen them shift between the Championship and League One, and their automatic promotion last season promised good things under Daniel Stendel.

However, with the summer transfer window providing Barnsley with a chance to build on the solid core in their squad, they did the opposite and sold four of their star players and replaced them with vastly inexperienced ones across the board.

This transfer ‘method’ didn’t pay dividends and has since seen Barnsley quickly thrust into a relegation battle with defensive errors and a lack of bite in midfield being a consistent theme throughout their season.

They have managed to boost their hopes of survival in recent months under Gerhard Struber, but they still remain firmly in the bottom three with a mountain to climb in the last 10 games as they sit five points adrift of 21st-placed Stoke City.

Their entry to the Championship has raised a lot of questions to those higher up at Oakwell that they might have underestimated the challenge at hand with their summer business, however, CEO Dane Murphy isn’t convinced by this notion. 

Speaking to Andy Giddings on the BBC Football Heaven Podcast, he had this to say: “I don’t think that it was underestimated.

“Going in we knew that there were going to be ups and downs because we had such a young group and such a young core. Most of them had no experience in the Championship so we took that into account.

“Did we perceive that the influx of a big group could help us against those roadblocks? Maybe we did and we underestimated certain aspects but not the league itself.

“We knew what we were getting into and that with our financial resources that things would be difficult for us and we’ve taken that into account.”

Can you get 16/16 in this Barnsley quiz?

The verdict

Barnsley have it all to do before the end of the season if they want to stay up, with a five-point gap looking very ominous.

The Tykes haven’t been great this season and while their three straight wins recently instilled a lot of hope, their inconsistency has been a massive issue.

There’s no shame in looking to invest for the future but it’s clear that Barnsley got the balance wrong in the market.

Gerhard Struber has tried to bring some more experience in and use the youth to his advantage, but it looks like a tall order to keep Barnsley in the Championship.