Mowatt and Murray set for move to West Brom
OUTGOING Barnsley captain Alex Mowatt is expected to be joined at West Brom by Reds’ assistant head coach Adam Murray – with the duo set to join forces with Valerien Ismael once again.
The Oakwell club confirmed Mowatt’s exit on Wednesday after stating that he had elected to turn down ‘the most lucrative deal ever offered to a Reds player’ to take on a new challenge following the expiration of his contract.
The Doncaster-born midfielder, 26, will be unveiled as a Baggies player shortly, pending the successful completion of a medical.
Meanwhile, Birmingham-born Murray, who worked successfully alongside Ismael during his time at Oakwell, has also been lined up by former Reds head coach Ismael to join his backroom staff at The Hawthorns. It remains to be seen if other members of staff follow to Albion, amid a time of uncertainty behind the scenes at Barnsley, who announced Markus Schopp as Ismael’s replacement earlier this week.
Chief executive officer Dane Murphy and club secretary Taymour Roushdi are expected to start work at Nottingham Forest shortly after being headhunted by the East Midlands club – with Murphy’s contract having recently expired.
Forest have been particularly impressed by Murphy’s track record in recruitment at Oakwell, while Roushdi has been earmarked for a senior operational role at the City Ground.
Ex-Leeds United midfielder Mowatt was a talismanic force in Barnsley’s outstanding rise into the play-offs in 2020-21, with his feats securing him a place in the EFL Championship Team of the Season.
Mowatt and his representatives entered into contract talks with the Oakwell hierarchy last season.
But an agreement was not able to be brokered with the Reds captain electing to move on under freedom of contract.
The former Leeds United player was the subject of a failed seven-figure bid from Millwall in January and was also on the wanted list of several other Championship clubs, aware of his contractual position at Barnsley.
Nottingham Forest and Middlesbrough were among rival clubs to have also expressed interest in the 26-year-old, players’ player of the season at Oakwell for the past three years.