2017-18 Preview: Barnsley stepping into the unknown with major rebuild

For someone who only celebrated his 40th birthday last month and boasts just 18 months of dug-out experience at home-town club Barnsley, he has packed a lot in during his tumultuous tenure.

The good? Receiving a monthly managerial gong in his first month in charge and orchestrating two Wembley wins in the space of 57 days for starters, followed by helping his boyhood side to their highest league position since 2000.

But alongside breathtaking days, there have been bewildering, challenging ones.

Like coping with the dismissal of your assistant following corruption allegations and the exit of your chief executive at the height of the winter transfer window.

For a spell earlier this year, Heckingbottom seemed, in many respects, like the de facto leader of the club at the age of 39, with the Reds effectively lacking a day-to-day decision-maker following the exit of Linton Brown, and owner Patrick Cryne having stepped down from his duties to receive treatment for cancer.

It was a situation which would have tested far more experienced managerial operators. The current situation is not exactly sunshine and roses either.

Heckingbottom has helplessly looked on as a host of leading players have left Oakwell in the past 12 months, with the backbone of a feted Reds side having been broken up. The immense task now is to somehow construct another.

New faces have arrived, but with several more being sought the jury is very much still out as the whether the Reds’ class of 2017-18 can step into the considerable boots of the likes of Hourihane, Roberts, Watkins and Scowen.

As Heckingbottom admits, it is a trip into the unknown

He said: “It is the biggest challenge for me so far. But you don’t get the chance to stop and think about it.

“It is a bigger job and I said all along from January in every board meeting and interaction with anyone at the club about how much work we need to do.

“What we have is the start and minimum in terms of recruitment. It is easy to see what numbers you need, but it is getting the right quality. Then again, the bigger challenge is getting a team out of those players because when you are recruiting so many, you don’t know how many will make the step up – because we don’t sign ready-made Championship players – that is not our policy.

“You are making educated guesses and doing all your homework on the players and then creating an environment where you hope that they can step up to be good Championship players.

“We will be an ‘unknown’ definitely. Speaking to Hilly (Keith Hill) in our friendly at Rochdale, they did not know any of our lads. But it doesn’t matter about being unknown; you have to be good enough.”

Heckingbottom’s concerns may be self-evident. But finding solutions to the challenges, as opposed to lamenting his lot is all that he is interested in.

You would expect that from someone whose depth of feeling and duty of care for ‘his’ club is worn like a badge.

He said: “Gauthier (Ganaye – CEO) has come in and taken a load of work off me, which has been great, straightaway. When I look back, I think: ‘What was I doing last season..’

“But the things you learn are invaluable and I am 100 per cent more sure of myself and what needs to happen.

“And I know this club inside out from seeing every little bit of it and being involved in running every bit of it. I know exactly what it needs.

“The difficulty is making it happen because we are restricted in terms of money. But it is not all about money, but consistent decision-making and everyone being aligned.

“We have taken a lot of steps back with the calibre of players we have sold. But it does not mean we can’t get there again.”