Former Wolves, Leeds United, Sunderland & Sheffield United man joins League One club on two-year deal

Former Wolves player Neill Collins has replaced Michael Duff as Barnsley head coach after signing a two-year deal with the League One club.

Duff moved to Swansea City - Championship rivals of West Brom and Birmingham City for the upcoming season - last month, with Collins confirmed as his replacement on Thursday.

Collins spent the final years of his career with Tampa Bay Rowdies in Florida before being appointed manager following his retirement in 2018, where he remained until accepting the Barnsley position.

He started his career with Queen’s Park in Scotland before moving to Dumbarton. He joined Sunderland in 2004 but spent the 2006-07 season on loan at Wolves, reuniting with Mick McCarthy at Molineux having worked with the former Ireland manager at the Black Cats.

The now 39-year-old was part of the side that won promotion to the Premier League in 2008-09, before joining Preston on loan the following season. He went on to have spells at Leeds United and Sheffield United and has now made his return to Yorkshire.

Of joining Barnsley, who lost the League One play-off final to Sheffield Wednesday last season, Collins said: “First of all, I’d like to say a huge thanks to the Tampa Bay Rowdies for supporting me in exploring this opportunity. Without all the staff and players incredible hard work this would not have been possible.

“I am absolutely thrilled to be stepping back in to the EFL and even more so to be joining a club of this stature. Everything I do will be aimed at repaying the faith showed in me by the owners and Khaled and of course giving the Barnsley faithful a team that they can be proud of.

“I am fortunate to be working with a squad that just achieved a play-off final but understand there is a lot of work to be done if we want to replicate that success and go a step further. I can’t wait to get started and work on getting this club back to where it belongs.”

Barnsley FC CEO, Khaled El-Ahmad, said: “We are happy to be able to bring Neill to Oakwell to work with our staff and continue upon the foundation we implemented at the start of the last campaign.

“The primary focus is now allowing Neil to settle in and begin to build relationships with the staff and players at Oakwell and commence preparations for the upcoming season.”