draws, and eight losses. Return to VfL Wolfsburg II Ismaël returned to VfL Wolfsburg II on 1 June 2015. Repeating the success of his first tenure with the team, Wolfsburg II won the 2015–16 Regionalliga Nord. Once again though, Wolfsburg II lost in the promotion play-off, this time to Jahn Regensburg. VfL Wolfsburg First-team head coach Dieter Hecking was sacked on 17 October 2016 and was replaced by Ismaël on an interim basis. In his first four games in charge, Wolfsburg managed to win twice. Ismaël was promoted from interim coach to permanent head coach on 7 November 2016. Ismaël was sacked on 26 February 2017. Apollon Smyrnis On 29 May 2018, it was announced that Ismaël had signed a two-year deal with Super League Greece club Apollon Smyrnis. However, after only managing them for one league game against Larissa on 25 August 2018, in which Apollon lost 0–1 at home, he was dismissed from his managerial post six days later due to disagreements with the club's president. LASK For the 2019–20 Austrian Football Bundesliga Ismaël was succeeding Oliver Glasner as the new head coach and sporting director of Austrian team LASK. In the first few months of his tenure, he led the team to the best start in the club's history (17 points from 8 games). He also led LASK to a first ever appearance in the UEFA Champions League play-offs. After beating favourites FC Basel the team fell short against Club Brugge. In LASK's first ever appearance in the UEFA Europa League the team won the group with Sporting Lisbon, PSV Eindhoven, and Rosenborg Trondheim. After beating AZ Alkmaar in the round of 32, LASK lost against Manchester United. After the Covid-19 induced pause of football, LASK trained a couple of days too early with full body contact. It was heavily criticised by other clubs, and the media. The team did not play well any more, and 4 points were deducted for breaching the Corona rules, which let them end on fourth position in the league. LASK parted ways with Ismaël on 11 July 2020, as Dominik Thalhammer became available who succeeded him. Barnsley When Gerhard Struber decided to join New York Red Bulls in autumn 2020, Barnsley hired Ismaël as his successor. He led them to a play-off position in the 2020-21 EFL Championship. West Bromwich Albion On 24 June 2021, Ismaël joined recently relegated Championship side