Barnsley have announced they have signed Alex Mowatt on a two-and-a-half-year deal keeping him at Oakwell until 2019.
Mowatt, 21, is incredibly experienced for his age having already racked up more than 100 appearances of senior football as well as representing England right up until the Under-20 age group.
However, the creative midfielder has lost his way at Leeds this season under Garry Monk and will now be looking to kickstart his career at their Yorkshire rivals.
Barnsley have been stripped of their best players this month having lost Conor Hourihane, James Bree and Sam Winnall to their rivals with Marley Watkins also looking to leave the club.
“I’m really happy to be joining such a good club and I can’t wait to get going here,” Mowatt told the club’s official website. “The gaffer showed me his plans for me and the plans he has for the future. It was good to see how he thinks and how he wants to play, he really sold his ambitions to me and made me desperate to come in and get going.
“I’ve seen quite a few Barnsley games this season and they are one of the surprise packages considering we have such a young team. I obviously watched the game the other night against Leeds, the atmosphere here and the performance was absolutely class. This is a young and exciting side playing equally exciting football. There is some real talent in the side and we sit just a few points off the play-offs, so who knows where we could go.
“I’m a centre mid who likes to get on the ball, create chances and score goals. The players we have here already can help me to improve my game and I’m hoping I can help the side as well with goals and assists.”
Having lost Hourihane and Winnall this month, players that have scored 37% of their goals in the Championship this season, bringing in players that can fill the boots they have left is going to be vital for Paul Heckingbottom’s side to keep their hopes of finishing in the top six alive.
In Mowatt they have recruited a player that has not seen much football this season. He only started four games in the Championship and was forced to make a further 11 appearances from the bench.
However, in the last three league campaigns only Chris Wood (35) and Mirco Antenucci (25) have played a direct hand in more goals for Leeds than Mowatt (19), so it does appear a promising signing for Barnsley should he get a good run of games under his belt.
For more stats on Alex Mowatt, click here to visit his WhoScored player page
