BARNSLEY sporting director Mladen Sormaz is looking forward to working alongside Conor Hourihane in the long term and has defended the club’s recruitment record this season.

Hourihane was appointed last Friday after a month as interim boss following the sacking of Darrell Clarke.

In a media interview on Thursday, Sormaz told the Chronicle: “Coming out of working with Darrell, who was a great guy and an experienced campaigner, there is a nice flipside of when it’s someone’s first time and they are bringing some freshness to it from being recently retired.

“It’s exciting on a number of different fronts to work with Conor.”

The previous two head coaches, Neill Collins and Clarke, were sacked in the last two seasons after bad form late in the campaign and the board wanted a drastic change, later stating that neither boss played the style of football they had required.

Sormaz was asked by the Chronicle whether Hourihane would also be sacked next season if promotion seemed unlikely or if this would be a long-term project based on other factors such as style of play.

He said: “If all the process is correct and he’s just getting completely unlucky or the shortfall is due to the fact that he hasn’t had X or Y provided to him, there will a be lot of understanding for Conor.

“He just has to keep driving the process day in, day out because we are desperate to have someone in for the long term that we can commit to.

“Even if next year goes as well as it possibly could, he still has room to grow again.

“With his connection to the club, if good things do come, he will probably want to see it through a bit further which was part of the thinking as well.”

The Reds’ target this season was to finish in the play-off places for the third successive campaign, but they are currently 14 points off sixth with two games left. Asked what has gone wrong, Mladen told the Chronicle: “It’s difficult.

“In January we didn’t lose any key squad players but we did get injuries at bad moments to key players, going into important fixtures, and we came out on the wrong side of really tight games.

“In most games we’ve only lost by one or two goals, it’s a tight league.

“Seasons can tail off for a number of reasons, partly just a build-up of games and injuries.”

The Reds’ recruitment this season has been roundly criticised. Sormaz told the Chronicle: “We record what the market looks like at the time. There isn’t anyone going back saying ‘we should have done him’ or that ‘was a tap in’.

“The toughest thing is trying to replace players who were signed in the Championship era on a bigger budget.

“We lost a high volume of those players like Herbie (Kane), Jordan (Williams) and Devante (Cole). Even if you bring good League One level players in, it’s going to look different because of what you’re losing.

“Overall, I think recruitment have done a good job. We’re heading into a better market than last summer and, if we can align tighter to the head coach’s style of play, we will get more hits with the signings.”

None of the January transfer window signings have been regular starters while striker Clement Rodrigues has disappeared from recent matchday squads.

Sormaz said: “The fairest criticism about January might be if we got the balance of looking long-term versus short-term right.

“We were trying to get the perfect deal for a forward, with someone on loan who would hit the ground running with an option to keep them. We knew what the striker market was like.

“Could we have gone for more experience there? Maybe. There will be learning there for sure.

“The signings weren’t massive financial outlays so we can go again from a better position. I get the criticism but it comes from a place of trying to balance the long-term and short-term.”

On Rodrigues, he said: “Clement has been dedicated and professional.

“In January we knew Fabio (Jalo) and Max (Watters) were coming back from injury so we knew whoever we brought in, we would have first team regulars in a similar position. In the last few weeks we’ve had everyone back so he’s been pushed a bit further down.

“We couldn’t bring in top-earner on top of top-earner.

“We thought there would be an upside if he came and set things alight.

“It hasn’t worked out but it won’t be damaging to us in the long run.”