New club secretary at Barnsley FC

[EastStandRed]

David Wernersson did not succeed as a player, but is now making a career off the field. Wernersson, who has a background as club manager and board member of LB07, will in future start working as a club secretary in the classic Championship club Barnsley FC.

When he stepped down as LB07 club manager last year, he did not think this opportunity would arise. Instead, he has worked at the company, "Gameinsight", which runs a digital platform with a focus on education and communication for players, coaches and clubs in the football world.

Wernersson enjoyed his job, but could not ignore the interest from England.

I have said that I want to work abroad, but I have not worked actively for it. This was an opportunity that arose and then I had to say yes. I had not applied and it is difficult to enter this market. I had not counted on this at all, he says to Fotbollskanalen.

Wernersson is already familiar with Barnsley's new Swedish CEO Khaled El-Ahmad, which made him an alternative to the assignment at the English club.

El-Ahmad has a background as a chief scout in Djurgården, but has also worked for City Football Group (CFG) for several years. Billionaire Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Khaldoon Al Mubarak founded CFG, which owns Manchester City, New York City, Lommel, Troyes and several other clubs. Barnsley wanted El-Ahmad in due to the Swede's experience and with the belief that he can develop the club's management, recruitment and academy, but also commercial activities.

Khaled was for a short period in Nyköpings Bis in 2014 and then I was a recent graduate from the university and had an internship there with a CSR job. That's how we got to know each other and since then we have taken different paths, but kept in touch a little sporadically. Now he heard from me and then I said yes. It is not often that you get this chance to work in England, says Wernersson.

But it was not just to say yes and jump on the mission. Wernersson has had to go through an interview process with other people in the club's management to get the role of club secretary.

- He (Khaled El-Ahmad) introduced me and then he was very careful that I would be interviewed by others in the club. I got an interview process with, among other things, the coo and a few others, so they had to make the assessment. Khaled took me as an alternative and then I did the interview with others. Swedes generally speak good English and understand how English football works. I have been a nerd and interested in English football for 25 years, so it has paid off a bit now. The former club secretary had also left, so there was a vacancy that needed to be filled.

[EastStandRed]

Wernersson also feels that the assignment is unique. He is one of the few Swedes who gets the chance to work as a club secretary in the Championship. If it's even happened before.

- I think that Khaled is the first Swedish CEO we have in England and I do not think we had a club secretary here either. It feels unique and exciting. I also get to work in football's home country with all that it means with the resources available. Even if it is the Championship, it is incredible resources, which can not be compared with the Allsvenskan. It's awesome.

Wernersson describes his role as a mixture of what the national team manager Stefan Pettersson does today in the A national team and what Marcus Allbäck did as "players manager" under Erik Hamrén's leadership in Blågult. Wernersson will coordinate and be responsible for the logistics around the A-team.

- I will be in the office early and go home late, but it will be from coordinating with players and coaches on schedule to match preparations and coordinating with the league and opposing team, so that everything is in order for each match. I guess it will take the majority of my time. We also play 46 league matches, so there are a lot of matches. A lot will be about coordinating around home and away matches and logistics around that. Around the transition windows I will coordinate transfers, even though I have nothing to do with transfers other than coordinating.

Wernersson has followed English football all his life and had an eye on Barnsley before El-Ahmad heard about the assignment. Barnsley has made a season in the Premier League (1997/1998) and is best known as a classic Championship team with 76 seasons, most of all teams, in the second division.

[EastStandRed]

I have seen them on TV when it was Tipslördag and Stryktipset and when I was a child. They have also appeared a few times when I played Football Manager, but it is a classic English Championship club, coming from Yorkshire with the mining and coal industry. It is a classic working class club in that way, so it feels like it goes back to the history, the roots and what we in Sweden paint as the charm of English football. It feels great to be in a club with such a history.

Barnsley finished last season in fifth place in the Championship, but the season before that was close to finishing with a 21st place in the league. The club is owned by a consortium led by Chien Lee and Paul Conway, but which includes "Mister Moneyball" Billy Beane.

Beane is the baseball icon that the movie Moneyball is about. He was previously general manager of the baseball team Oakland Athletics and led the club to success in the early 2000s by recruiting players based on statistical analysis, while the club paid out relatively low salaries. Several football clubs now work according to the "Moneyball principle", and Barnsley is a club that invests a lot in recruiting young, talented players.

- As I understand it, Barnsley has invested very young and wants to build in that way and develop both the club and players in that way. I think they have the youngest average age in the entire league this year. There are probably also only two or three who are over 26 years old in the squad. The latest acquisitions from Bayern Munich and Manchester City are also two 20-year-olds, says Wernersson.

Wernersson will not be involved in transfers, but believes that it will be exciting to work with all the resources available in English football. Although Barnsley does not have as big a budget as other teams in the Championship, the English football apparatus is on a different level than in Sweden.

- There are so many incredible people and ministries involved. There are so many different things in a football club. If there is one, two or three pieces that you can turn to in Sweden for all types of questions, you now have ten different ministries for all types of questions. It ranges from insurance issues to player transfers and agent issues, he says and continues:

[EastStandRed]

It sounds ridiculous when I mention those things, but it's such an incredible apparatus with how the clubs are set up with all the staff available internally. Barnsley is gradually building upwards. They came fifth last year, but managed just the year before, so they are building slowly and stably upwards. Then there are different conditions, as for the clubs that go down from the Premier League that get a different type of parachute, but still it is incredible conditions and a completely different picture. "One strike out", you do not have many chances, but you must be prepared to take it.

Wernersson initially moves alone, but then his family also comes over to England. It is not yet clear where he will live, but he thinks it will be fine once everything is ready.

Now Wernersson is looking forward to working on the big football scene in England.


- I think it will be a little easier to take everything in once you are in place. Now it has been so intense. I think it's great to have the opportunity considering how much I've watched English football. It's clear that football there is close to my heart and it's cool to get there. As I was an awful football player, I'm glad I got this chance instead, he says and laughs.

Barnsley has started the season this autumn with six points after five rounds and is placed in 14th place in the Championship. On Saturday, Barnsley will face Bournemouth away in the second division.

[Young_Nudger]

Excellent stuff 👍

[SBRed48]

Ahmad bringing his mate in.

I would like to know who else was "interviewed" as it seems that Wernersson was just appointed without applying.

Any outside talent dunt evva chance. Inbreeding rarely succeeds.

A Conway "yes man", blowing warm smoke up his substantial arseoyle. Good luck wi that pal.

A long way from the days of Michael Spinks chatting to fans prior to games, home and away.

[EthelRed]

Is Melissa still on the payroll?

She was appointed after a well advertised and competitive recruitment programme wasnt she?

[SBRed48]

Is Melissa still on the payroll?

She was appointed after a well advertised and competitive recruitment programme wasnt she?

Melissa's removal from the Academy structure(not announced by club) was the first indication fans had that Dane was on his way. Conway (arseoyle) didn't bother to inform fans that Dane was on his bike.

[GRASS SOD]

Has he got a work PERMIT and Visa ???