Barnsley must try sign 16-goal star - Daniel Stendel knows him very well | OneFootball

Daniel Stendel should bring exciting 19-year-old striker Tom Hobrecht from Hannover with him to Oakwell this summer

Barnsley have turned to a familiar face in the dugout to lead them into the 2026/27 campaign, as Daniel Stendel was announced as their new head coach.

The German boss succeeded Conor Hourihane, who parted ways with the Tykes after a disappointing campaign, where the club finished in their lowest position in the EFL in 23 years.

It's hard to be optimistic as a Barnsley fan, with the club statistically getting worse each year after they finished in the Championship play-offs back in 2020/21, but the reappointment of the last man to lead them to promotion in Stendel may help revive that optimism.

Especially when looking at the fact that, for the last four years, the 52-year-old has been in charge of developing young talents in the Hannover 96 reserve team.

11 members of the first team at Oakwell are under 24, and the Tykes still had the joint-fifth youngest squad in the third tier, even with 38-year-old David McGoldrick leading the line each week.

So, with a young squad and a head coach who has spent time improving young players, Stendel could excel back at Barnsley, and he could continue the youth takeover at the club by bringing over an exciting frontman from his Hannover II squad.

Barnsley should sign 19-year-old Tom Hobrecht this summer

Since Stendel was confirmed as the new Barnsley boss, some Tykes supporters will have been looking at the squad list at Hannover II to see if any of the young players there may be able to cut it over in the English third tier.

Above all of them, 19-year-old striker Tom Hobrecht could be the one to step up, after he enjoyed a brilliant debut campaign with the reserve squad, having joined their academy a year prior from Göttingen.

Hobrecht averaged a goal every other game up front for Hannover, scoring 16 times in 32 games, adding five assists along the way, too. Only two of those goals came in his first 17 appearances, too, meaning he ended the campaign netting 14 in 15.

His best performance came in a 4-0 win over SSV Jeddeloh's reserves, in which he scored all four, and he added three more braces between November and the end of the campaign, too.

Granted, this is all in the fourth division of the German football pyramid, so there's no guarantee that Hobrecht would be able to translate that over to League One, and Barnsley shouldn't rest all their attacking hopes on the 19-year-old.

They clearly would still need an extra two or three striker signings, especially if McGoldrick doesn't sign fresh terms at the club, but having the exciting German on their books to help bed into the squad could lead the Tykes to having yet another striker with a decent sell-on value.

Tom Hobrecht would add to the exciting young core at Barnsley

Barnsley haven't shied away from trusting in academy products in recent years, with midfielders Jonathan Bland and Vimal Yoganathan being picked up from other clubs and progressing through the youth system at Oakwell to earn major minutes this season.

Additionally, Reyes Cleary has been one of the most exciting wide men in the division, having arrived from West Brom last summer. If they can stave off interest from Derby County and Bristol City, as FLW have exclusively reported, then he'd be in line to get even better.

And on top of that, Charlie Lennon could be in for a breakout year next season, having been used off the bench just three times since his January move from Middlesbrough, and scoring on his debut against Wigan Athletic to preserve a point in March.

With all the young talent coming through at Oakwell, Hobrecht would fit right in as another high-potential star while following his former manager to South Yorkshire, who figured out how to get the best out of him in the latter half of this season.