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:



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