Barnsley left kicking and screaming

Barnsley fc fans have had their worst fears met when manager Gerhard Struber has left the club to join New York Red Bulls after just 11 months in charge.

Struber was liked a lot by the fans after turning the fortune of the club around in such a short space of time and after pulling up some amazing results and shocks, Barnsley stayed up on the final day after pulling off one of the biggest shocks of the season beating 3rd place Brentford who needed a win for automatic promotion 2-1. 

I wanted to get insight from a person who knows the club very well so I spoke to Club supporter liaison officer Carlo Van de Watering, I asked him a range of questions what you're thoughts are on who you should get and who have you seen that's in the running ? He had this to say: “our style of "high intensity, high press," is the preferred style for our club and when looking for managers they also have to fit into that.For that reason, I expect the new manager to be relatively unknown (as Stendel and Strüber were).Given there is 9 days left of the Domestic transfer period the fans hope is that a head coach is appointed sooner rather than later in order to bring in new players. 

I also asked: what do the fans expect from the board and are the fans happy?  “Strüber was questioning the board’s ambition saying he did not want Barnsley to be a team fighting in the relegation zone of the Championship but felt the owners did not match his ambition. Any person interested in taking the head coach role at Oak well will want to know where they stand in regards to having funds available for new players. The fans feel that after nearly 3 years the board have done very little in communicating with the fans especially given the current worrying stories about boardroom division and poor results at the start of this new season. Almost 8000 fans invested in the club not knowing if they would be able to attend any matches. Most of these would expect the board to match their enthusiasm and expectations for the club. So far we have seen very little of this”.

An early favourite for the job is former Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe who took Bournemouth from league 2 to the Premier Leagueand kept them there for over 2 years. Eddie is highly rated and a lot of Barnsley fans where excited when his name came up. Former Wigan manager Paul Cook who got Wigan promoted to the Championship multiple times is in the running. He’s a free agent after been let go by Wigan at the end of last season. Barnsley sit 21st in the Championship with 1 point and it seems they need some signings. In 4 games Barnsley have failed to score a single goal from open play.