Barnsley are hoping to appoint a current member of staff or club legend as manager on a short-term contract until the end of the season, the Chronicle understands.

Highly-rated academy manager Ronnie Branson, who is a former teacher from Hemsworth, is a possible candidate while youth coaches Mark Burton and Paul Heckingbottom – who both played for the Reds and are from Barnsley – could be involved in the new set-up.

Keith Hill was sacked as manager 13 days ago but his assistant David Flitcroft is still at the club as the caretaker but it is unlikely that Flitcroft will be given the job full-time and the club hope to make an appointment early next week.

The board will not comment on any new developments but, after being rejected by both Sean O’Driscoll and Terry Butcher this week, it is understood that they are reluctant to approach another well-known manager in order to avoid being rejected again and because an experienced candidate might not appreciate being third choice.

Instead, they are considering promoting one of the academy coaches or giving the job to a popular former player for the rest of the campaign.Nicky Eaden and Craig Hignett are among the ex-Reds that have applied for the job while legend Neil Redfearn, currently an academy coach at Leeds, has also been considered.

Director Don Rowing told the Chronicle: “It has been a very disappointing week but we are still confident of getting someone in place who can keep us up this season. “It probably was a bit too soon for Sean after leaving Forest and Terry felt he had unfinished business at Inverness.”