Brexit bureaucracy could dash Barnsley’s hopes of achieving the two main management goals
Barnsley is reportedly considering another left-field name for the vacant leadership position at Oakwell.
The Reds saw much appreciated boss Valérien Ismael leave on Thursday. Newly relegated elite West Bromwich Albion has agreed to pay £ 2million to buy Ismael’s contract back from Oakwell.
He only held the position in South Yorkshire for nine months, which led them to a shock spot before falling to Swansea City in the semi-finals.
Ismael was largely unknown on those shores prior to his appointment as Barnsley boss last year, aside from a brief stint at Crystal Palace as a player in the 1990s.
His coaching experience in Germany, Greece and Austria alerted Barnsley’s hierarchy and he turned out to be a huge success.
He was named to replace his predecessor Gerhard Struber, who also had a brief but successful one with the Reds.
The Austrian spent less than a year at Oakwell, but steered them on a remarkable survival mission on the last day of the 2019-20 campaign. Months later, he was poached by the New York Red Bulls.
Now it looks like Barnsley is ready to try his luck in a similar path as they search for Ismael’s replacement.
Statement by a football insider that Hannes Wolf, former interim Bayer Leverkusen boss, and Mainz head coach Bo Svensson, are both being polled by Barnsley chiefs.
Wolf, 40, has managed Stutgart, Hamburg and Genk while Svensson is also highly rated after winning nine of his 20 games in charge since being named in January.
Despite the allure of opting for an unknown coaching talent, Barnsley may encounter problems down this path.
Indeed, new post-Brexit rules have now entered into force.
They are much stricter than before and stipulate that managers or head coaches must have worked for two consecutive years, or three of the last five, in one of the best leagues in the world.
Appeals can be made if work permits are refused, but since the regulation is still relatively new, it has not yet been successfully tested by a club.
Oddly enough, Barnsley’s last three bosses (Ismael, Struber and Daniel Stendel) have reportedly not received work permits under the new rules.
The changing landscape could well signify a different approach taken by the reds. The bookies currently have former Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder as a favorite for the vacant post.
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