Success is not foreign to Tykes
JOHN HENDRIE, the former Barnsley boss, has defended the Tykes foreign policy.
Ex-Sweden Under-21 coach Poya Asbaghi arrived last November and was Barnsley’s sixth successive permanent overseas managerial appointment.
He was preceded by Portuguese Jose Morais, German Daniel Stendel, Austrian Gerhard Struber, Frenchman Valerien Ismael and Austrian Markus Schopp.
Sheffield United boss Paul Heckingbottom, who quit Oakwell in February 2018 to take over at
Leeds, was Barnsley’s last British manager.
The Reds are deep in relegation trouble and Asbaghi, successor to Schopp after being a contender for the job two seasons ago before Struber’s stint, faces a desperate battle.
It represents a dramatic decline after last season’s Ismael-inspired surge to the Championship playoffs, in which Barnsley suffered semi-final defeat by Swansea.
But ex-striker Hendrie, who as player-manager followed Danny Wilson in 1998 after the only top-flight season in Barnsley’s history, insists the club’s Chinese-led ownership have a right to resist calls for a homegrown boss.
Hendrie, pointing to the successes of Stendel and Ismael, said: “The foreign owners have different beliefs and they came in and decided to go a certain way.
“The owners could say, ‘Who’s anyone to judge us? We got it right with Ismael.’ It was a shame he left – he was magnificent.
“Two seasons ago, under Struber, they only stayed up in the final game. Last season, they kicked on after Ismael took over and got into the play-offs. It wasn’t a surprise that West Brom came in for him.
“And Stendel had already done a great job in getting Barnsley promoted from League One.”