Bobby Hassell returned to his 'footballing home' this week and hopes to help bring through Barnsley lads into the Reds' first team.

The 35-year-old, who played 299 games in a ten-year spell at Oakwell before being released last year, has been named head of academy recruitment. He will over see a team of 16 scouts looking at players from age six to 20 while also helping out with coaching sessions across the age groups.

"I want to really focus on bringing through talented lads from Barnsley," Hassell told the Chronicle. He added: "I understand that, out of 30 or 40 in the seven to 11 age groups at the club, only five or six are from Barnsley.

"We need to treble that at least. We are losing too many of them to Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, Leeds, Rotherham and Chesterfield. We will have open trials at Oakwell.

"I have done a lot of work in schools and local football clubs so I know a lot of headmasters and coaches in Barnsley.  For the first four or five months, we will focus completely on Barnsley kids aged seven to ten to make sure our club is the first to get any talent in the town. Then we will look to Sheffield, Doncaster and Rotherham but if two players are equally good, which happens a lot in kids football, we will always prioritise the one from Barnsley."

Hassell, who lives in Dodworth, is currently studying for his UEFA A licence and says that, towards the end of this season, he will shift his focus towards the under 18s and under 21s.

"I will be making sure that the club has a stronger underbelly because there haven't been enough players coming through in the last few years. We are not going to come across another John Stones (England international from Thurlstone) because there are very few of them in the world but we should be creating players who can play for Barnsley in League One and the Championship.

"Lee Johnson needs to have a group of younger players that he can call on and trust, especially when the emergency loan window stops for next season."

Hassell got to know first team head coach Johnson after captaining the Reds for his testimonial in pre-season. Bobby said: "I get on really well with Lee. We played against each other and we are almost the same age. We respect each other and I have a huge amount of admiration for him. He is very, very honest which you don't get a lot in football sometimes. We have a great relationship."

Johnson said: "Bobby has a good affinity with the club. I played against him on numerous occasions and always had fun out there with him because he's a winner. That's what we want around the club. He's come in in the under 21 recruitment role but I am sure he will be spread around other roles with the qualities he has.

"It will be good to have him in the office next to me.  He's a good lad, everybody likes him and I will draw from him. It's good to have someone in that role who has played the game and someone who has been around the town for a long time.  I will bounce ideas off him on our younger players but also players he played with and against.

"Under 21 recruitment is a huge role for the club because what we want ideally is 11 starters who are all from Barnsley."

Hassell started his coaching training while still a player at Oakwell and worked with the under 15s and 16s then was player-coach at FC Bharat in India but his two-year contract was cancelled earlier this year and he retired from playing.

He said: "I am delighted to be back at my footballing home. 'They approached me then I was in talks with Patrick Cryne for a couple of weeks.  We discussed a couple of different roles but this one seemed to be perfect. Coaching and scouting are areas I always wanted to go into.

"I think I have a good eye for a player. I haven't really missed being a player because I have my Christian faith and my family and a lot of other things in my life.  But being back at Barnsley FC has definitely given me a spring in my step.

"The first day was a bit odd for me but, by the second day, I felt like I knew everyone and it was like I had never been away. Dale Tonge is the under 12s coach now and Martin Devaney and Paul Heckingbottom are already there as development coaches. To have four lads from the 2006 promotion team is great. "It's a massive benefit to have coaches who have been there and done it as players."