Barnsley’s hopes of persuading first choice Sean O’Driscoll to become their new manager have been thrown into serious doubt by the sacking of Stale Solbakken this evening.
The 44 year old Norwegian was a relative unknown in English football when he was appointed as Wolves manager in the summer, save for a brief six game playing stint at Wimbledon in 1997 and he has found life in the hot seat tough with Wolves, relegated from the Premier League in May having won just nine of 26 league games to sit 18th in the Championship.
The final straw came today when they suffered their fourth successive defeat at the hands of non-league Luton Town in the FA Cup, and that saw Solbakken, whose first victory as Wolves manager was against Barnsley, get the axed.
That has a direct impact on The Reds as it is believed O’Driscoll will be the number one choice at Molineux and reports have surfaced over the course of this week that the 55 year old, who comes from Wolverhampton was holding back on accepting the Barnsley job in case his hometown team came calling.
The Wolves board are desperate to get back into the top flight as soon as possible and will have been impressed with the work O’Driscoll did at Nottingham Forest where he was sacked with the club just a point off the play-off places.
O’Driscoll knows the area well, as mentioned before he comes from Wolverhampton and started his playing career at one of the local clubs in the area, Willenhall Town.