Analysis of Daniel Stendel's return for a second stint as Barnsley head coach this summer.

An exciting appointment, as long as it is backed up by good work in all other departments

HOW CAN a Barnsley fan not be, at least initially, excited by the return of Daniel Stendel?

Under the German in 2018/19, the Reds won automatic promotion from League One as they collected more points than any side in the club’s history while going 20 league games unbeaten.

He was a very popular character who learned English during his time at Barnsley and was a regular at the local pubs, including downing shots with fans after his controversial sacking.

Watching highlights from that promotion – Brad Potts’ strike against Charlton and Kieffer Moore’s against Bradford are particularly special team goals – is eye-opening for not just how good the football was but how much intensity, confidence and momentum that team had in their play and celebrations. It is a world away from the last few seasons at Oakwell.

For a fanbase starved of positivity in recent years, this has to be at least something to be hopeful about.

Instead of being disappointed that a coach, like in previous campaigns, has not played the preferred club style of high-energy attacking football when it was never their own method, the Reds have brought in someone who has always used that approach.

It cannot be a nostalgia appointment which is only a temporary morale boost but brings no long-term improvement.

That would lead to further snowballing of the discontent among the supporters during this slide down the EFL.

Stendel’s return must be allied with full backing of his style of play, investment in smart recruitment and keeping at least some key players, plus a buy-in from a playing squad that contains some significant talent. That is certainly the plan within Oakwell so let’s see how it goes.

Bringing well-liked former managers back did not work in previous decades with Allan Clarke or Danny Wilson while we have seen first time boss Conor Hourihane struggle despite his immense popularity from his playing spell.

Arthur Fairclough won the FA Cup in a second spell but that was more than a century ago.

Stendel is the 17th appointment in the last 15 years with none having the chance to build a long-term project either due to sackings or being poached by other clubs.

In theory, he is the perfect antidote to some of the major problems the Reds have suffered in recent seasons.

Won nine, then six, then nine home league games across three campaigns? Bring back the guy who oversaw an unbeaten season at Oakwell for the first time in more than half a century with 15 wins and eight draws.

Conceded 73 goals in each of the last two league campaigns with just ten clean sheets combined? Re-sign the man whose side let in the fewest goals in the EFL in 2018/19 and broke a club record for 21 clean sheets.

Lost the identity of a high-pressing, exciting football team? Send for the ‘gegenpress’ coach whose side counter-attacked at lightning speed and played some of the most attractive football seen at Oakwell in recent years.

Stendel used 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1 formations last time at Oakwell, the same as Hourihane employed, so it will not be a huge change in that respect, although the pressing and style of play will alter.

Hourihane also blooded young players, something Stendel was able to do last time with the likes of Jacob Brown – although within the comfortable surroundings of a very good League One side.

He turned around the careers of players such as Alex Mowatt, who the club were keen to sell that summer, Ethan Pinnock, Moore and Cameron McGeehan.

During his recent spell as reserves coach at German second tier club Hannover, he won a promotion while he has helped bring through several players into the first team while they have sold young talents such as Nicolo Tresoldi and Bright Arrey-Mbi for multi-million fees.

This time, the aim must be to at least be in contention for the top six, stop conceding goals that the rate of the last two seasons, show a clear playing identity again and continue to develop some of the promising young players.

A far tougher challenge than last time

Stendel will be walking back into a very different Barnsley Football Club than the one he arrived at in 2018, or at least one whose position within League One and squad dynamics have changed considerably.

Last time, they had a decent squad for the Championship, only relegated by the inept Jose Morais. They signed just four players in the summer window – some of whom were back-ups – as the playing staff was basically ready to make a charge back to the second tier.

This time, there is a serious rebuilding job required and the Reds are less of a heavyweight for the level than they were eight years ago, both in terms of their allegedly 13th-best budget and the reputational hit successive mid-table finishes will have dealt them.

They just finished 15th, must closer to a relegation fight than a promotion challenge.

Unlike last time, Stendel will not be able to drill his style all summer into basically the same team that will take the field when the new campaign starts on August 15 with players likely to be coming and going throughout the off-season. But that is normal for most coaches and he will have to show his adaptability.

In his first spell, Stendel had Cauley Woodrow and Kieffer Moore – among the better Barnsley strikers of the last 20 years – while the only centre forward contracted now is 20-year-old Leo Farrell, who has never started in the EFL, with top-scorer David McGoldrick out of contract.

Stendel had Ethan Pinnock and Liam Lindsay at the heart of a defence that shipped just 39 league goals.

But they have just let in 73, the second most in the division, with many of their underperforming defenders out of contract and some serious work on tightening the entire team defensively required on the training pitch.

It would be difficult to play the high defensive line of Stendel’s first spell with the current defenders.

Midfield is easily their strongest area in terms of quality and quantity, with a four of Adam Phillips, Luca Connell, Patrick Kelly and Reyes Cleary at least comparable to Brad Potts, Alex Mowatt, Cam McGeehan and Mamadou Thiam from eight years ago. But Cleary and Kelly will be sought after this summer along with the usual uncertainty over Phillips and Connell whose contracts are running down.

With so many gaps in the squad, there is an opportunity to bring in a new group of players who fit Stendel’s clear style.

But it remains to be seen if the Reds have the money and ability to do so.

Stendel’s mixed coaching career since 2018/19 glory

There is no doubt that Stendel’s full season with Barnsley was the highlight of a mixed coaching career.

After a playing career as a striker, mainly at Hannover 96, he coached their youth teams before spending less than a year as their first team manager in the Bundesliga from 2016 to 2017.

His next job was at Oakwell where his pressing stats had caught the eye of the data-driven recruiters and he worked wonders in the 2018/19 campaign.

But, after promotion, centre-backs Ethan Pinnock and Liam Linsday were sold, as was star striker Kieffer Moore while goalkeeper and captain Adam Davies left after his contract expired. The players brought in were extremely young and inexperienced and the back four in the early weeks of the Championship season were all 21 or younger.

After an opening day win over promotion favourites Fulham, Stendel then did not win in ten while struggling to replicate his style of play with a much-changed team at a higher level. His constant requests in the media for more experience did not go down well with some above him and he was eventually sacked after a 5-1 loss at Preston in early October.

The club issued a callous 21-word statement after the sacking, which was roundly criticised, before then chairman Paul Conway claimed Stendel had been trying to engineer a move to Huddersfield.

He joined Scottish club Hearts that season and could not save them from relegation, but refused to collect his salary during the Covid-19 lockdown and is respected by many supporters.

He went to Barnsley’s then sister club AS Nancy in the French second division but did not win any of his first ten league games and was sacked. He has been back in charge of Hannover’s reserves since 2022. They won promotion from the fourth tier in 2024, making them the first second tier club to have a reserves side in the third tier. They came straight back down and are now mid-table.

Stendel appeared several times as a witness at Sheffield Crown Court during the trial of Joey Barton who was found not guilty of assaulting the Reds boss in the Oakwell tunnel in 2019.

What impact all of that has had, if any, we will find out in the coming months.