Gauthier Ganaye interview
This 29-year-old is the youngest chief executive in the Football League
BARNSLEY supremo Gauthier Ganaye is the youngest chief executive in the Football League - and has already got his sights on reaching the top.
Frenchman Ganaye, 29, believes Barnsley can follow the likes of Huddersfield and Burnley by getting into the promised land of the Premier League.
They got into the top flight in the 1990s and manager Paul Heckingbottom has been charged with building a “sustainable” team to get them out of the Championship.
Ganaye played at youth level before taking up various roles at French club Lens which is famous for its youth development and producing young players.
Ganaye wants to see Barnsley back in the top flight(Image: PA Wire)
That experience is now designed to reap rewards for Barnsley after he joined them in the summer and signed 17 new players on a budget.
Ganaye said: “The Barnsley model is to shop in lower leagues, find the talent, bring the players through and find something different and do something extra that other clubs are not doing.
“Barnsley is financially sustainable, that’s how we want to run the club and you have already seen smaller clubs have success with promotion and reaching the play-offs, so why not us?
“We want to be more competitive, but also stay within our model but we can also look to strengthen the team and move forward.”
Barnsley believe Ganaye just succeeds Mansfield’s Carolyn Radford - who became chief executive at 29 - as the youngest chief exec in the League and he is now left with big responsibilities.
There has been big interest in takeovers at Barnsley - one Chinese consortium also included baseball’s Moneyball guru Billy Beane - and also to be successful in a Championship which has currently got Wolves running away at the top after a big spending spree.
Ganaye has not found his age a barrier but is trying to establish a connection with the players and bring the whole club together with simple things like all the staff travelling to away games on the same bus.
Ganaye insists Barnsley will never pay 'massive' fees
Ganaye said: “It’s good that you can relate to players but I also feel I have more experience in the business than people who are older than me.
“I’ve received a warm welcome from everybody, I think a few people - agents and so on - are trying to have at you, take advantage and destabilise me.
“But that won’t work. They didn’t know my background at Lens where we had a strong set-up and also the ninth best academy in Europe with so many good players like Serge Aurier, Assou Benoit-Ekotto and the list is really long.
“I think Barnsley is a very attractive club, forward thinking, with a strong fan base and run in a sustainable way. We think it is very dangerous to spend what you cannot afford but we believe we can build for the future.
“Barnsley will never pay massive fees, never pay massive wages and we believe that can work. I left my country to come here, it’s a big challenge and I won’t leave without success.”
