Sky Sports exclusive: Michael Duff discusses his reasons for leaving Cheltenham for Barnsley, his ambitions of taking the Tykes up to the Championship and his hopes for the future for the club and himself
Wednesday 14 December 2022 17:25, UK
"I'm not sure I had this many grey hairs six months ago!"
Maybe it was just three wins in the first seven after trying to pick up a club that had been relegated in dismal fashion, or the near four-week period in October when they did not score a goal.
Either way, it's not surprising that Michael Duff has felt tested so far at Barnsley. But now things now are on an trajectory. Four wins on the bounce since that barren run has seen them move up into the play-offs in League One, seeing him pick up the Manager of the Month award for November.
"It's been a challenge," he says. "But an enjoyable one. We're a work in progress. But it feels like we're heading in the right direction in terms of the group coming together. Results have certainly helped and we're inching forwards slowly.
"We've had a few bumps in the road and we've come through a really tough period."
It's been a topsy-turvy couple of years for Barnsley. Promotion to the Championship in 2019 was followed by an incredible final-day survival in 2020, and then a near-miraculous run to the play-offs in 2021.
Then, last season, it all went wrong. A couple of games from the Premier League turned into a slump to the bottom of the Championship and relegation back to the third tier.
Barnsley slightly changed their recruitment approach in bringing in Duff, 44, who had enjoyed great success in taking Cheltenham Town up from League Two and consolidating their position in the level up last season.
His first job was to pick the club up off the floor, which has explained the slowish start.
"When I first came in there was a big disconnect between the fans and the club," he says. And there was a big reshuffle at boardroom level.
"The club felt like it was in an emotional state. They'd had the highs of the year before but it was behind closed doors so no one could see it. Then the year after when supporters were allowed back in it was a really poor year, so that probably accentuated the frustration.
"After such a poor season and a relegation, and big player turnover. There was a debt that had to be filled with players sales.
"But the past is the past. My job is to try and bring it all back together again. It's taken time, but the players have been receptive to new information and new ideas and the group has settled a bit after a high turnover in the summer. They have bought into it and we're pushing in the right direction.
"It was never going to happen overnight. But we said to the players three or four weeks ago that we felt the day-to-day habits were getting better. The drive from within the group is getting better. The award is just a little doff of the cap that it's starting to work.
"But we need to keep pushing and pushing though because we're still a long way away from where we want to be."
Duff's career has been somewhat unique. Up until his move to Barnsley he was the archetypal two-club man. Although that was perhaps a term that could be uniquely applied to only him.
As a centre-back he spent eight years at Cheltenham and then 12 at Burnley. He then joined the Clarets backroom staff when he retired in 2016, and before taking over as Cheltenham manager in 2018.
In a way his switch to Barnsley was the first time he had stepped into a new footballing environment in 18 years, and his first in a leadership position.
"My next move was always going to be a big one, because in 27 years I'd only been at two different clubs," he says.
"It's a completely different model here to Cheltenham. There I was the manager, I knew where everything went and every penny was a prisoner.
"Here it's a different model. It's data-led, the recruitment is slightly different and I'm a head coach. But I knew all that walking in. I knew there would be a lot of moving parts.
"It's a bigger operation here and it's impossible to be in charge of everything. Once I worked out pretty quickly what I was and wasn't in control of I could crack on with what I was in control of.
"But it's a case of backing yourself that you can do it. I wanted a fresh challenge because I felt I'd taken Cheltenham as far as I could.
"I was the same as a player. I wanted to challenge myself and prove to people that I could do it. This is a completely different challenge to Cheltenham but we're only five months in and we've not cracked it yet.
"There were other factors, too. I still live in Cheltenham and my kids go to school there. I'll be there for the rest of my life, so I didn't want it to go sour while I was still in the area."
Barnsley have been promoted from League One in three of their last four attempts, but the league has become a different beast now.
Six of the current top eight, including Barnsley, have played in the Premier League since the turn of the century. Three of those - Ipswich, Portsmouth and Bolton - have even played in Europe in that time.
Barnsley have games in hand to try and reel in the current top three. Duff is confident, but not expectant.
"At the minute we're sitting fourth, and I'd be surprised if there were many supporters who wouldn't have taken being here at this stage at the start of the season," he says.
"The supporters here expect us to be competitive if we get relegated to this level, but this is the first time we've gone down and then had to sell five or six of the starting side to survive the summer.
"It's not been too long since we went a whole month without scoring a goal. I was a bit worried then, but not too worried. If you look too far into the future you trip over where you are.
"I just get my head down, I won't predict where we'll finish. If it's good enough I'll still be here, if not they'll move me on and bring someone else in. Talk is cheap."
As a player Duff worked his way through from bottom to the Premier League. As a manager he has already moved from League Two to League One with Cheltenham, and hopes to take the next step one day with Barnsley.
"The long-term vision and the thing that attracted me to the club is they want to get into the Championship and establish themselves," he says. "To get in and stay in.
"The model has always been to sign young and sell. They had the one year in the play-offs, but they've had to sell a lot of those players now.
"It's about being self-sufficient, while staying in the Championship. At the moment it's up for a couple of years and then down."
The dream is, of course, the top flight. Duff is no different to any other aspiring manager.
But he knows if he does not quite make the full leap like he did as a player, it will not be because of lack of application.
"If I don't get there it won't be from not working hard enough," he says. "It was the same when I was a player. Just keep going day to day and see where it takes you.
"If I'm 60 and retired and the highest I ever finish as a manager is fourth in League One I'll be able to go to bed and know that it won't be through cutting corners and trying to cheat the system.
"Hard work pays you back and if you get a little bit of luck you might get a break. I know I'll be happy because I've worked as hard as I can."
It will be fascinating to see first where that hard work can take Barnsley.
