Just eight months after arriving and six and a half weeks after leading the club to their highest finish in 21 years Valerien Ismael has departed for relegated West Bromwich Albion after they met the £2m release clause in the Frenchman’s contract.
Ismael who only managed Barnsley for two matches in front of supporters (the two play-off games) was in charge for 44 games and won 25 of them including a second tier club record seven in a row and took the then winless in 2020-2021 Barnsley from fourth bottom to fifth top.
In departing today he becomes the fourth successive permanent Barnsley manager to fail to guide the team through a full second tier season after Jose Morais (3 months) Daniel Stendel (3 months) and Gerhard Struber 11 months) with Paul Heckingbottom in 2016-2017 the last to achieve this feat.
Ismael who will ironically face Barnsley at the Hawthorns on the final day of the 2021-2022 season has the best win percentage (57%) of any Barnsley manager since Percy Lewis between April 1914 – April 1919 who won 59% of his games in charge (27 of 46)