Chris O'Grady says he hasn't 'got a clue' which club he will be playing for next season but claims the Barnsley fans' support will make it hard to leave Oakwell.
The Reds are expecting interest in their top-scorer, who picked up the Player of the Year trophy on Saturday before scoring twice against QPR to take his tally to 15 for the season. He is contracted until 2015 but several Championship clubs have already been linked with him.
"I don't have a clue what will happen," O'Grady told the Chronicle.
"I am in contract at Barnsley but if the club accepts an offer for me then I will look at it and see if it is right for me. I have to think about my family's future. I have no idea whether there will be offers or not but if there are then it will be a very tough decision to make.
"I have always wanted to play at the highest level possible, and I still want to play in the Premier League, but sometimes you have to go backwards to go forwards and staying with Barnsley in League One is definitely a good option."
O'Grady, who lives in Darton, says the welcome he has had from Reds' fans since he moved from Sheffield Wednesday last year, as well as the Oakwell faithful's support of a failing side this season, could be a key factor in his decision.
"The fans are definitely a big reason for me to stay here. I have been at certain clubs when things have not gone so well and the fans have rightly turned on us. But the Barnsley fans haven't done that at all and that has really helped me personally as I need support from the fans to play well. They have had a lot to put up with all season, especially at home, and they have been fantastic."
O'Grady, 28, has taken his Reds' goal tally to 21 in 59 games with some fine performances this season. The striker admits that he has taken some positives from his own success despite the heartbreak of relegation.
He said: "I have looked back at the season I am quite proud of my performances. I don't know if everyone in the squad can say the same and that is probably one of the reasons we went down. On paper it has probably been the best season of my career but it doesn't feel like that. We have under-performed. It started on day one when we lost 4-0 at home to Wigan. We went into the match on such a high but the result totally deflated us and, after that, we were playing catch up the whole season. We gave up on the tactics that we used last season and kept constantly changing tactics because nothing was working.
"Relegation was devastating but what doesn't kill us will make us stronger. Everything needs to be stripped down and rebuilt and we have the right man at the helm to do that. Danny Wilson knows the club and the town and he is the man to get it back where it belongs."
O'Grady has been paired with a host of strikers this season such as Jason Scotland, Marcus Pedersen, Chris Dagnall and Nick Proschwitz. He said: "It would have been nice to have a regular partner, even just for five games. We've been very dysfunctional in that area and it's been a big problem. There's been injuries and we have had makeshift strikers or me on my own or strikers who have been given the chance but haven't done the business."
