According to a report from Football Insider’s Wayne Veysey, and covered here in more detail by The72, Barnsley have had a £500,000 bid accepted by Forest Green for defender Liam Kitching.
Barnsley are bubbling around midtable and looking a much stronger defensive proposition than last season. In order to bolster that solidity, the Tykes are moving for Kitching, a player who came up through the youth set-up at Leeds United.
When the 21-year-old left-sided centre-back signs on the dotted line, he will join fellow Whites players Alex Mowatt, Aapo Halme and Clarke Oduor at Oakwell.
From Leeds United to Forest Green and Barnsley interest
Youngster Kitching, whilst rated highly at Elland Road, never made that expected breakthrough. He impressed in the National League on loan with Harrogate Town, making 33 appearances that paid out three goals and four assists.
With him not being a part of Marcelo Bielsa’s immediate plans, the youngster was let go from Elland Road and signed for Forest Green. It is there that he has settled in and shown the class he had that alerted Leeds to his potential.
He’s featured in 53 games for The New Lawn Stadium outfit over the past two seasons – providing three assists. It is the level of performance that he has shown for FGR that has alerted Championship side Barnsley.
Improvement and what Liam Kitching offers
🚨 TRANSFER ALERT 🚨
Barnsley have reportedly agreed to sign 21-year-old smarterscout young prospect Liam Kitching from Forest Green. He's already had two good seasons at a Championship standard at LCB, his attacking and ball retention improving this season. Outstanding tackler. pic.twitter.com/CvXRNWu9zE
— smarterscout (@smarterscout) December 21, 2020
The above tweet from Smarterscout shows his performance for The Green over the past two seasons when benchmarked against the Sky Bet Championship. What it demonstrates is that he is a high-performer and a young player to watch (top right circled icons).
Dropping down to the middle of the tweeted picture, the boxed section shows him with scores of 68 (attacking output), 59 (defending quality), 70 (defending quantity) and 76 (ball retention). All of the above, apart from defending quality, are improvements this season – his ability to retain the ball +29 better than last season.
Additionally, he is rated as 89 for winning tackles/ground duels (bottom boxed) against opponents when they have the ball. Smarterscout’s ratings are out of 99 and a more detailed explanation of how they are calculated can be found here.
Leeds United loss = Barnsley gain
There is little doubt that Barnsley will be onto a winner here getting Liam Kitching for £500,000. He’s proven that he could cope with League Two football at a young age and he has improved since then.
Whilst getting Liam Kitching on board at the Tykes will be good business for Barnsley, it will be even better business for Forest Green who look like banking a very welcome £500,000.
