Ex-Barnsley FC boss Conor Hourihane on venturing into the unknown and biggest lesson from time at Oakwell

He left Barnsley after Saturday's emotional Oakwell farewell against Stockport County - and his next destination in his second career in football as a coach remains up in the air.

Monday morning will have felt strange, for sure.

Hourihane, who spent just over one full season in charge of the Reds, said: "In my situation, the end of the season over the last 20 years has been (about) planning my off-season fitness regime. Or last year, it was obviously transfer windows.

"I was a free agent when I left Aston Villa after a couple of loans, but pretty quickly I was signed with Derby, even though I probably knew that was on the horizon.

"So this (close) season is the unknown, if I'm honest, and let's see what happens.

"I need to enjoy a couple of weeks away from it and to let things settle and recharge, but I think within the next three or four weeks, I'll be wondering what's going on with myself and is there anything really on the horizon. I'm a guy who loves working. It's within me.

"It's something that I don't want to go too long without. Let's see what happens, but I think the first two or three weeks I need to try and really switch off.

"I remember last summer, I went into it and was on the phone a lot, with transfer windows and getting organised.

"The family holiday that I had, I was on the phone a lot and taking a couple of hours out of the day to get organised and having phone calls with Jon Flatman and all these Zoom recruitment calls."

Having reached a mutual decision with the club back on April 18 that he would be leaving the Reds at the conclusion of 2025-26, Hourihane had already had time for reflection about what went well - and what did not in his maiden post as a head coach.

The 35-year-old commented: "I've definitely reflected over the last few weeks and there's been a couple of mornings or evenings where I'm driving back to Birmingham or back up again to stay up for a couple of nights. You're always thinking in the car.

"I've taken a little bit of a dive into it, but nothing over the top. Do I want to be a head coach? Yes. Will it be my next role? Who knows, because it might not fall for me.

"But one thing's for sure that I'm as hungry as ever to continue on, whether that's as an assistant for the time being, because it's the right thing for me, under someone that is higher up the ladder, or straight in as a head coach. Let's wait and see.

"But the fire's still burning very brightly to crack on with work."

As for the pertinent lesson of his first experience as a 'number one', he said: "It's probably dealing with losing, if I'm honest. We've been really inconsistent this year.

"Have I handled myself in a really good way in the building? I think coming back in on a Monday, Sunday or a Thursday morning, whatever that looks like, after a loss, I feel like I've been really focused and body language is really clean and trying to handle the emotions.

"There's been some days where it takes me until after the post-match (analysis), because we'll always 'post-match' every game, until I'm really back to being normal."