Barnsley need to be better 'behind the scenes' to avoid the large turnover of players they saw during last month's transfer window, says head coach Paul Heckingbottom.

The Reds sold out-of-contract Sam Winnall, Conor Hourihane and James Bree while the head coach was frustrated that they could not sign loan star Sam Morsy or a new striker. Heckingbottom told the Chronicle: "We need to manage things better as a football club. We need to be better with our targets and build a stronger team every transfer window.

"The more we can get right behind the scenes, the fewer steps back we will have to take during the season. We have to hope that, next January, there is the same speculation surrounding our players, because it shows we are doing well.

"But we have to be ready for that and have fewer players out of contract. If we are selling, it should be just one player who we get maximum value for then we can reinvest some of that money to build a squad.  That is the only way we will get better or we have hit a ceiling."