Barnsley FC plan more Neil Warnock talks after Mick McCarty turns coach's job down, says chief executive Khaled El-Ahmad

To have appointed either of their former players would have been a radical departure from their policy of recent years but the board has been overhauled following relegation to League One, and there seems to be an openness to different ideas.

The Reds hope to have a new manager in place for June 13, or failing that the start of pre-season, but still seem to be some way off. They have been without a manager since April 24, when Poya Asbaghi left.

This week the club said they had whittled their shortlist down to "five or six". Warnock is not thought to be one of them, but could yet be added, and The Yorkshire Post understands one candidate has withdrawn this week.

“I reached out to Neil and I will be speaking to him again," El-Ahmad told the Barnsley Chronicle. "We haven’t got that far with him. There could be more names added to the final list.”

Warnock admitted in April he would have liked the chance to manage the club he played for as a winger between 1976 and 1978. At that time the 73-year-old announced his retirement from management but he has made and reversed that decision before, and judging by El-Ahmad's comments, it is not set in stone now.

Even in the days after he announced his retirement he said in an interview with a national newspaper: "I am definitely supposed to be retiring. But I can't get rid of it, whatever it is. My wife Sharon knows. I wanna try to have a bit of time and I will but you never know what's around the corner, do you?"

The 17 clubs Warnock has managed include Scarborough, Huddersfield Town, Leeds United, Sheffield United, Rotherham and Middlesbrough. He holds the record for most promotions in English football with eight.

Warnock has always seen himself as a manager, whereas Barnsley operate a continental model with a head coach who does not oversee recruitment.

Caretakers apart, the last Englishman to lead them was Paul Heckingbottom, in 2018. Danny Wilson, in 2015, was the last manager.

The Barnsley "model" has been to unearth up-and-coming coaches, often from Europe's less heralded leagues, but this has become more difficult since Brexit made securing work permits harder.

El-Ahmad told The Yorkshire Post the club have interviewed candidates who fit into three different "buckets" - “One is the very experienced, one is the up-and-coming who don’t necessarily have a lot of managerial experience and the other one is what I call the solid option that has some seasons behind them."

McCarthy was born in the town 63 years ago and the club where he started his career, making over 250 appearances, has always held a special place in his heart. He has been out of work since managing Cardiff City last season.

But perhaps the fact he operates in a similar way to Warnock dissuaded him from moving to Oakwell, with El-Ahmad claiming he has turned the job down.

Cheltenham Town's Michael Duff, Burton Albion manager Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink and 30-year-old Manchester United set-piece coach Eric Ramsay are all thought to have been interviewed for the vacancy.