Barnsley key figure planning to launch investigation ahead of next season

Barnsley CEO Khaled El-Ahmad says he’s preparing to launch an inquiry into why his side have started the last three campaigns so poorly, making his intentions known to the Yorkshire Post.

This season’s poor beginning looks set to be the most costly, with previous boss Markus Schopp failing to get the Tykes off to a much-needed bright start after being knocked out of the play-offs the previous term.

They may have won four points from their opening two league matches, looking set to cope reasonably well without three previous key figures in Valerien Ismael, Alex Mowatt and Daryl Dike, but they went winless in their following 13 and this cost Schopp his job at Oakwell.

Their wobbly start to 2019/20 can perhaps be forgiven due to the fact it was their first season back in the second tier – but even under Gerhard Struber who had rescued them that season – they struggled during the early stages of 2020/21 as they went winless in their opening seven league matches.

A meteoric rise under successor Ismael papered over those cracks – but has come back to haunt them this season and they haven’t fully recovered from that yet – still finding themselves in the bottom three at this stage and in real danger of dropping down to the third tier.

To try and prevent the same from happening for the fourth time in a row next season, CEO El-Ahmed has this issue on his agenda going into the next few months.

Revealing his thoughts, he said to the Yorkshire Post: “One thing I have (also) been trying to look at and prepare for next season is why over the last three seasons has Barnsley started so poorly.

“Why? Do we need to come (in) early, is it something we need to do in pre-season.

“That is something we need to review as well.”

The Verdict:

If