Barnsley are set to announce Valerien Ismael as their new manager following the departure of Gerhard Struber.

The Austrian left the Tykes for New York Red Bulls at the start of the month, with coach Adam Murray placed in temporary charge since.

That has given the Barnsley hierarchy a few weeks to sort out a replacement and Football Insider have revealed that Ismael is the man they are going with.

The 45-year-old is not a name that will be known to many supporters of the Yorkshire club, although he did have a short spell with Crystal Palace in his playing career.

Since retiring in 2009, Ismael has embarked on a coaching career and he has had various roles in Germany, landing the top job at Nurnberg and Wolfsburg.

More recently, he had a spell in Greece with Apollon Smyrnis before a very successful year in charge of LASK in Austria - where he also succeeded Struber who had left for Oakwell.

LASK qualified for the Champions League under his guidance and although they didn't make the group stages, they did reach the last 16 of the Europa League where they lost to Manchester United.

Ismael is taking over a Barnsley side that are 21st in the Championship and his first game could be at Millwall on Saturday.

The verdict

This is another bold appointment from the Tykes as Ismael has no experience of managing in England but the board deserve to be trusted on this as they have got the last few big decisions right.

Clearly, they like what they see with Ismael and he does like to play the high-pressing football that Daniel Stendel and Struber brought to Barnsley.

The fans will just be glad that a decision is imminent and it's then down to Ismael to start picking up results to help the team up the table.

Thoughts? Let us know in the comments below.