Barnsley FC chairman makes revelation regarding director of football role & why decision to split day-to-day running of Reds was made

The Reds are in the process of overhauling the day-to-day operational structure of the club with a footballing supremo being sought alongside a new chief executive officer, with Khaled El-Ahmed to leave his position as CEO on December 15 ahead of taking up a role at US club Minnesota United.

The new CEO will focus on all financial, operational and commercial aspects of the business, as opposed to football matters, which will be the remit of the new head of football.

Ahead the two key permanent appointments being made, academy director Bobby Hassell will serve as interim director of football, while chief revenue officer Jon Flatman will be acting chief executive.

Parekh, speaking at a fans’ forum on Monday evening, said: “In terms of the permanent position, we have had over 100 applications for the (director of football) role already.

"(There’s) Some extremely high quality applications, quite frankly we have been blown away by some of the people who have applied.

"We are hoping to have this role (confirmed) or at least a name in the next month. If the person is in a job right now, depending on the notice period, it might take a couple of months for that person to come in.

"It’s not starting from zero, in fact the process has already started. Over the next three months, the transition will be seamless because Bobby has been involved in all the physio and academy stuff, but also had a close relationship with Khaled and Neil (Collins) with the first-team. It should be fairly seamless.”

Parekh has acknowledged that the previous policy of having one individual effectively running the daily side of the business and all the footballing departments has been ‘too much of a role for one person’ - hence the decision to split the role.

Elaborating on the change, he continued: “They (director of football) will be in charge of everything on the football side and work with Neill on the first-team side. It will be in relation to players in and players out and contract renegotiations of existing players.

"It will also be working with various people on the sporting side, Neill and the first team, the physios and sports science.

"It will be working with everyone related to the football side of the club and also working with the academy in trying to bring players in from the academy through and making sure there’s a consistent system at first-team and academy level. It’s effectively everything football-related, but no longer everything organisational related.

"It is nothing related to commercial, revenue or anything like that. That’s why we are setting it (up) as we think it is too much of a role for one person. We also think it requires two very different skills-sets.

"Like most clubs around the country, I think it is best served by having two people in the role.

"Right now, Bobby Hassell will take over and he’s the interim director of football. I think all of you know Bobby better than I do in some respects, he needs no introduction and is not starting from zero in that respect.”