Barnsley: Heckingbottom in no hurry in Reds talks

A few weeks ago, chief executive officer Gauthier Ganaye revealed that talks had opened between Heckingbottom.

They came about after speculation the former defender could be on the move to Sunderland.

Heckingbottom is on a one-year rolling contract at Barnsley and is happy at the club.

The 40-year-old said: “We’re under no pressure to get it done and we’re not desperate to do so either.

“We’re getting closer and I’m spoken lots about my desire to stay. We’re further down the line with it now. How close we are, I don’t know.

“Over the past few weeks other things have sort of taken precedence.

“It was put on the back-burner a bit due to other things and that was fine by the club and fine by me.

“We’ll wait and see and we’ll talk about it when it happens.”

The Reds travel to Brentford, who have not lost at Griffin Park in Championship games, tomorrow.

Heckingbottom’s side have tasted defeat in their last five - but did beat the Bees away last term.

The boss added: “Brentford are a good side and Griffin Park has been a tough place to go to the last few years.

“They’ve done good business over the past few years, sold players for big money and have gradually been able to increase their budget and compete.

“Last year we managed to get a win and we’re wanting the same sort of thing again.

“We’re looking for a clinical performance. In the last three games, if we’d had been clinical then the results would have been different in every one of them.”

Meanwhile, young midfielder Jared Bird has signed a contract extension which will see him stay at the club until 2020.