Barnsley got something Watford and West Brom didn't: View | OneFootball

Valerien Ismael's managerial expectations soared during the 2020/21 season when he took Barnsley to the Championship play-offs.

The Tykes were beaten 2-1 on aggregate by Swansea City in the semi-finals over two legs, and these proved to be Ismael's last games in charge at Barnsley.

The French boss moved on to West Brom afterwards, where it didn't quite work out as he lasted only seven months in the job before he was replaced by Steve Bruce.

After a short spell in Turkey at Besiktas, Ismael returned to England to become head coach of Watford.

three-year contract in October, and it looked to have been the right call initially as his side were two points outside the play-off places at Christmas.

But just two wins in 14 games followed, culminating in him being sacked by Italian owner Gino Pozzo – known for being notoriously impatient with managers at Vicarage Road.

It was no different with Ismael, who was dismissed and replaced by interim boss Tom Cleverley before the 1-0 win over Birmingham City on Saturday.

Former Manchester United midfielder Cleverley is now the 13th different manager to stand in the Watford dugout over the past four-and-a-half years.

For Ismael, it will be hard to take but he'll no doubt come again.

Ismael's story at Barnsley

Managerial sackings in the Football League are becoming more and more frequent with every year that passes by.

What makes Ismael's sacking at Watford very bizarre is that it came five months after he was given a new contract – this sums up modern day football to a tee.

In his latest two jobs in England, the level of expectation on Ismael was unfair and solely based on what he did at Barnsley – where he overachieved.

In 2019/20, the Tykes finished 21st in the Championship and narrowly avoided relegation by one point before starting the next campaign by picking up one point in the first four games.

This led to Gerhard Struber being replaced by Ismael.

At Barnsley, he took the reins with much less expectation than there was at West Brom and Watford, and he thrived off it.

In Yorkshire, his team had an underdog mentality, meaning he took risks and adopted a nothing to lose mentality.

His risky style of play, which involved high press off the ball and playing quickly through the opposition on it, worked to excellent effect at Oakwell in 2020/21.

However, at West Brom and Watford it simply didn't.

Ismael not the right fit at West Brom

When West Brom competed in the Premier League for eight successive seasons between 2011 and 2018, their success was built on being tight and compact, which made them hard to play against.

The likes of Roy Hodgson, Steve Clarke and Tony Pulis ensured that this identity was sustainable for them to compete at the top level.

It was the same for Watford between 2015 and 2022, when they spent seven out of eight seasons competing in the Premier League playing similarly to how West Brom did.

Ismael's style of play is a little unorthodox, and at Barnsley he built a team that were unique in style and unpredictable in what they were going to do.

At West Brom, it seemed to be the opposite.

When he was linked with the Cardiff City job in January 2023, Joe Chapman, West Brom writer at Birmingham Live, explained to WalesOnline: "The main reason for fans wanting Ismael to leave was the style of football. It was a rigid 3-4-3, with no room for manoeuvre at all.

"If he made a change, it'd be like for like - even, like at Swansea, when Albion were trailing in the final moments of the game, and he'd throw a forward on in place of a forward, while three centre-halves remained on the pitch.

"That rigidity and stubbornness was a hard sell to supporters who quickly grew frustrated with the predictable substitutions and which rather shackled Albion."

The Watford project was not to Ismael's liking

Ismael's style was admired by so many at Barnsley, but it seemed like he had more freedom there to play how he wanted to.

Under the ownership of West Brom and Watford, it appeared as though he had to adhere to play a certain way based on the club's recent history.

Like many clubs nowadays, both West Brom and Watford seem to want to abandon the so-called old-fashioned approach of being rigid and compact in favour of taking more risks.

Ismael was no doubt a risk-taker at Oakwell, but less so at the Hawthorns and Vicarage Road.

Both clubs have enjoyed long spells in the Premier League during the last decade, but feel a need to adapt to the way football has evolved from the 2010s to the 2020s.

Carlos Corberan appears to be the answer to what West Brom were looking for as he's been able to evolve the team to play a different way to what they did under Steve Bruce.

That's what Watford have been hoping for from all the managers they have employed since they were relegated from the Premier League in May 2022 under Hodgson.

Pozzo simply doesn't afford managers time.

At Watford, they were expecting his impact to be instant, just as it was at Barnsley.

But as soon as they experienced a few bumps in the road, they decided to change – which is nothing new for the club.

Ismael will come again, he just needs to find a project that suits him, and find a club who will let him do his own thing rather than heap high expectations on him immediately.

He's an exciting coach with a likeable personality, and wherever his next job is, true football fans will wish him all the success in the world.