BARNSLEY have made progress this week in their search for a replacement for Conor Hourihane who says taking charge of the final games knowing he is leaving is ‘unique.’

The club announced on Saturday, just before the 2-2 home draw with Bradford City, that head coach Hourihane would leave by mutual consent at the end of the season with the head coach calling it a ‘real amicable termination’.

The search for his replacement is well underway and is thought to be down to the final few candidates with interviews taking place this week.

Barnsley are understood to want to go back to a high-pressing style of manager – after Hourihane went away from that to an extent – and another major criteria is the ability to work with and develop young players.

It is understood the Reds are exploring the possibility of a foreign manager, although British coaches have also been involved in the process.

Their last four permanent bosses, since the UK leaving the EU made it harder to recruit overseas coaches, have been British or Irish following six successive coaches from the continent.

The new head coach will be Barnsley’s 11th in less than eight years.

Former Barnsley defender Darren Moore and Watford coach Charlie Daniels have been linked with the role but are not thought to be candidates.

It is not clear yet if Hourihane’s staff will leave Oakwell with him.

He brought in Richard Keogh as his assistant last summer while former Reds players Tom Harban and Scott Flinders have been first team coach and goalkeeper coach respectively.

Neither Hourihane nor the club have given details of why the split has happened. Hourihane told the Chronicle: “You always look at long projects as a head coach. But in head coach life, there’s not much security around nowadays with the way the game is.

“So we can all talk about projects.

“I know some managers like Graham (Alexander, Bradford manager), has been there for a while and he’s built and moved forward.

“But other managers are gone before they even know it. So in terms of projects and longevity, it’s nothing new in the game, really.”

Hourihane – who intends to become a head coach elsewhere in the future – had spoken about enjoying working with young players such as Reyes Cleary, Patrick Kelly and Jono Bland.

Asked if it will be hard to walk away from that, he told the Chronicle: “I’ve every fondness towards this group.

“I’ll always look back at my first group. But ultimately, people come and go, managers come and go, players come and go, coaches come and go.

“Journalists come and go, so it’s ships in the night. It doesn’t last forever.”

The Reds are 13th in League One with three games to play and can no longer mathematically be relegated or promoted. They have won one of their last ten games and are five points shy of last season’s tally.

They visit Luton Town on Saturday then Northampton Town on Tuesday before they host Stockport County in the finale on May 2.

Hourihane said: “I’d really like to end it with some positive results.

“After Bradford, we had a really big high off the back of the performance, the way it finished, the emotion that was involved in that day, obviously, with me. And I really don’t want the last games just to kind of fade away and not get some positive results.

“Stevenage was really disappointing. We know we need to improve on that.”

Asked about keeping players’ focus on the next few games, Hourihane said: “I think any player is always thinking about something. Whether it’s the next training session, whether it’s the next performance, whether it’s the next block of games or some sort of aim that they want to try and achieve.

“So, regardless if it’s me, another manager, different suitors if they’re going to go to other clubs, there’s always a lot of things to be thinking about and they just need to take care of what they can control and that’s every time they turn up to train, they train properly.

“Every time they get prepared for a game, they do it properly. And the more times you do that, the more times you’ll play consistently well.”

On him being in charge knowing he is leaving, Hourihane said: “I think it’s definitely unique. It doesn’t happen very often. It comes down to the connection between me, the club and board.

“There’s still a little bit of the right thing happens. In football, it’s sometimes shocking and things happen that you think, how is that happening?

“But I think the ending to this chapter has just been very good from both sides.

“It’s been very pleasant and nice that there’s been nothing tarnished. It’s just come to an end that we want to take different paths. It’s been absolutely fine.”