Barnsley have confirmed the signing of former Tottenham and Sunderland ‘keeper Ben Alnwick.

Following the departure of David Preece, Alnwick will be competing with Luke Steele for a place in Keith Hill’s team.

Despite being just 25 years-old, Barnsley is Alnwick’s tenth club although the majority his moves were loan deals whilst at Spurs.

Having started his professional career with Sunderland, which included a period where he was first choice in goal, Tottenham Hotspur paid in the region of a million pounds to take the promising youngster to White Hart Lane.  Since then, Alnwick has only been involved in a small number of first-team games on loan at a number of clubs, and started just three games in the league and cup for Spurs.

Chances of first-team action at Oakwell may also be limited with Luke Steele established as Barnsley’s number one for almost four years now.  Steele’s previous understudy, David Preece, only played in a handful of games in just under three years at the club – the majority of those coming due to Steele picking up an injury.

Barnsley’s other keeper, Lukas Lidakevičius, is highly rated and has regularly represented Luthuania at youth international level – however it is likely that Keith Hill would prefer to have a backup ‘keeper with more experience should Steele be forced out of the team through injury or suspension.