Football News: Barnsley In Transition

Following the reign of veteran manager Danny Wilson being ended, Barnsley turned to a much younger man in 34 year old Lee Johnson. This summer will be a major test of his abilities as the club are in need of a rebuild. With eight players leaving, he has to find a way to build his own team from the remnants and the players he brings in.

So far Johnson has brought in a centre back, Marc Roberts, from Conference National side Halifax Town and Marley Watkins from Inverness Caledonian Thistle in the SPFL. The club will need to work hard to bring in more players if they are to reach their aim of winning promotion back to the Championship next season.

Is this season going to be too soon for Johnson and Barnsley to achieve that? It does seem likely, with the loss of Dale Jennings, and his ability, when on song, to win a game at this level, that it will take Barnsley a couple of seasons to rebuild and move up a division.

The question that is most in need of answering is regarding Lee Johnson, is he ready to manage a team of the size of Barnsley? As a player he is very experienced, but as a manager he is just learning the role. This is a huge job, not so much because of the size of the club, but because of the size of the turnaround needed.

Under Wilson, the life seemed to be sapped out of the club, quite the opposite from the way he seemed to breath life into his teams in his early days. Johnson has to turn that around, but maybe his comparative youth can aid him in that, helping him be the breath of fresh air that Danny Wilson once was.

Written by Tris Burke June 19 2015 17:18:07