Ben Mansford, Barnsley's 33-year-old new chief executive, is hoping to bring 'youthfulness' to the role and drive the club forward along with chairman Maurice Watkins.
Mansford, who is younger than Reds striker Jason Scotland, signed a contract last Friday and will be based at Oakwell from June 17. He will have a week working alongside outgoing general manager Don Rowing, who announced his retirement this week. Mansford, who is from Cottingham in East Yorkshire but supports West Ham, has previously worked as a sports solicitor at Walker Morris in Leeds and an agent and adviser at Wasserman Media Group.
Watkins and Mansford do not know each other well but the new chief executive has been looking to move to a club for some time and impressed during a series of interviews with owner Patrick Cryne.
He told the Chronicle: "I am very, very excited. I will bring a youthfulness and energy to the role. I'll be the youngest CEO in the league by far but I've been in the game for ten years and Maurice will make up for any lack of years."
Mansford – who has represented former Leeds star Fabian Delph as well as a host of Football League players – has worked with financially-stricken football clubs such as Luton Town, Rotherham United, Port Vale and Portsmouth, assisting the administrators in the sale of players.
He was with Portsmouth at Oakwell last year when the Reds won 2-0 and also saw Barnsley beat Leeds 4-1 last season and draw 1-1 at Cardiff City in the season just gone. He said: "I could see at Cardiff that this team was fighting and the way they stayed up has left such positivity at the club. Barnsley is going forward at the moment thanks to the work of the manager and his staff and players.
"Myself and Maurice Watkins are looking to build on that. In David Flitcroft we have one of the brightest and most dynamic young managers in football. He knows how to give 110 per cent and I hope that myself and Maurice can continue to motivate and support him.
"Maurice and myself have got a very different skill set to what has been available to the club in the past. I do not like to call myself an agent. I am sports laywer by day who has worked as adviser or agent to sportspeople by night and on weekends.
"I think my experience will help when dealing with players' agents. They have a lot of power but I know how they work and I know a lot of them so hopefully that will benefit Barnsley."
Mansford will be in charge of the day-to-day running of the club but will run all the major decisions by Watkins and have regular board meetings with the chairman.
Full interview with Mansford in this week's Chronicle.
