3 players Barnsley must eye up for £0 after Daniel Stendel transfer hint ft Sheffield United icon | OneFootball

The Barnsley manager has suggested that his club are still looking for players in the free agent market, so here are three that could be worth a look.

Barnsley manager Daniel Stendel has admitted that his club are still in the market for free agent players even though the transfer window has now closed.

With two wins and two defeats from their opening five games of their League One season, it's been a mixed start to the season for the Tykes.

But their last match, a 5-1 home defeat to Stevenage, was alarming for a club with aspirations of making a return to the Championship at the end of this season.

This result has prompted a response from the Barnsley manager Daniel Stendel. According to a post on the social media platform X from BBC Sheffield's Ben Rooth, the Reds could be in the market for free agents to bolster their numbers, even though the transfer window has closed.

Barnsley have the space for new players to be brought in. They've only submitted 18 names on their 22-player squad list to the EFL, meaning that there are four empty spaces that could be filled by players who are currently without a club. And with that in mind, here are three players that FLW feel could do a job for him this season.

Billy Sharp

South Yorkshire legend Billy Sharp may now be forty years old, but it can't be ruled out that he could do a job in League One for Barnsley this season.

Sharp signed off from his two years at Doncaster Rovers in style, scoring a hat-trick on the final weekend of the season against Peterborough United.

He also had the ball in the net a fourth time for the Reds, which would have been his 300th career goal, only for it to be disallowed for offside. These three goals meant that he set an incredible record, having scored a hat-trick in the EFL in his teens, 20s, 30s and 40s.

Over 22 years and over 800 appearances, Sharp has had an extraordinary career, and he's also previously expressed an interest in going into coaching.

His experience could be invaluable in the dressing room, and with Barnsley's current strikers being quite young in Makenzie Kirk and Ben Hamed Toure and Leo Farrell, the need for Sharp's experience - and his love for South Yorkshire - could be necessary.

Niall Huggins

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It's difficult to avoid the feeling that Niall Huggins hasn't quite been given the chance that he deserves.

At 25-years-old, he's only ever made 42 league appearances, even though he's been on the books of two Premier League clubs, Sunderland and Leeds United, and made four appearances for the Wales under-21s earlier in his career.

Last season, he was loaned out by Sunderland to Wycombe Wanderers in League One, where he made 19 appearances for the Chairboys and acquitted himself reasonably well.

But he was released by Sunderland at the end of 2025-26 and has been without a club since then. Barnsley could do with a little extra cover at right-back, given youngster Arlie Kay has been playing there so far this season, and Huggins could be a bit of a gamble worth taking, if Daniel Stendel is looking to bolster his numbers.

Elliot Lee

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There's always a surprise or two to be found in a list of players who are free agents, and it was a bit of a shock to see that Elliot Lee hasn't been picked up by anybody yet since being released by Wrexham late on in the summer transfer window.

Lee was a huge part of the Red Dragons' rise from the National League. He was an ever-present in their 2023-24 League Two promotion team and made 38 appearances for them in 2024-25 as they sealed another promotion from League One. This was his third promotion with the club, having also been part of the team that got out of the non-league game in the first place.

Lee was described as a "hero" by Wales Online when his time at The Racecourse Ground came to an end, and he was linked in the summer with a potential move to Sheffield Wednesday. But this never came to pass, and he remains without a club.

At 31-years-old, he offers experience without necessarily being at the very tail-end of his career. He seems a natural fit to see out his autumn years at Oakwell to add a bit more ereativity in the number 10 role if Stendel wants to strengthen that area, having had a stint at the club earlier on in his career.