My thoughts on the 22 ins and outs at Huddersfield Town in the January transfer window

Huddersfield Town’s January transfer window was certainly busier than most fans expected when Mark Fotheringham said there wouldn’t be any activity this month. Whether that was him playing mind games with the board, other teams or he was just talking rubbish is hard to say but, in fairness to the club’s hierarchy, they have been very active in the January market. On a more critical note, the activity at this stage looks like a confused mess of bargain bucket purchases and weird decisions with the odd promising acquisition thrown in.

With all the loan players being recalled and sent out again, I’ve genuinely lost track of all the movement in and out of the squad this month. So, to get some clarity in my own mind, I’m going to go through all the transfers the club have made this month. Then I’ll summarise my thoughts on it towards the end. Here we go…

New players coming in to the squad

Matthew Lowton – Loan from Burnley until the end of the season

I wasn’t all that excited by this piece of business but having watched him play and see how he carries himself on the pitch, I can understand why he was brought in. Lowton has played at a higher level for most of his career and brings experience and quality that improves our starting eleven. 

Florian Kamberi – Free agent signed until the end of the season

I wish I hadn’t mentioned quality in the above paragraph, because it’s hard to then start talking about Florian Kamberi. He feels like one of those throw-away signings, like Connor Mahoney in the summer, who was cheap but has a low percentage chance of coming good in the Championship. He does give us options, he’s got physical presence. But when I played five-a-side, people mocked me for my second touch usually being a tackle. So far Kamberi looks the same.

Martyn Waghorn – Loan from Coventry until the end of the season

Waghorn has more pedigree at Championship level and if you look back in his history you can see that he has been relatively prolific in the past. Not so much in recent seasons though and Coventry fans were delighted to offload their misfiring striker. Not a good sign but I’m holding out hope that he might benefit from a change of scenery.

Anthony Knockaert – Loan from Fulham until the end of the season

Another player that would have been awesome five years ago but is now on the downward curve of his playing career. He’s regularly scored against Huddersfield Town in the past, so maybe playing for us could rekindle some of that magic. There’s no doubt that he has something about him that we are currently missing from our squad but it’s not clear if he’ll produce that magic in this loan spell, particularly as he arrived with an injury that means he’d not yet trained with us when Fotheringham was last asked about it last Friday. UPDATE: The club out out a training video this afternoon and Knockaert was in full training, so we may see him fairly soon.

Joseph Hungbo – Loan from Watford until the end of the season

Hungbo is a decent prospect but hasn’t been getting enough chances to shine at Watford so has come to us to get some game time and show what he can do. He was one of the few bright points in our defeat to Coventry last weekend, as his pace and energetic dribbling stretched the game and added some flair to the attack. This is one of the signings I’m most excited about. 

Tomas Vaclik – signed from Olympiacos until the end of the season (undisclosed)

Losing Lee Nicholls for the season was a huge blow, as he’s our best player by a distance. But the club deserves some credit for going out and signing a keeper that looks to be very good, at least on paper. He won the Europa League with Sevilla in 2020 and has been capped by the Czech Republic 51 times. It seems like a real coup for Town to have snagged such an experienced keeper to fill Nicholls shoes and I’m looking forward to seeing what he does for us.

UPDATE: Jordan Smith – Loan from Nottingham Forest

The fax machine at Canalside whirred into life again after I clicked publish on this article, as we announced the signing of another keeper, this one a Forest backup keeper. It seemed an odd signing at first but I thinking Bilokapic is probably too young to be our number 2 and we gambled on Nicholls’ fitness in the first half of the season without senior cover. This addition makes me think the club are less confident that Vaclik will stay fit all the way til May.

Loan players returning and staying at Huddersfield Town

Josh Koroma returned from Portsmouth

We had no say in Koroma’s return as Portsmouth had a break clause that meant he could be shipped back if they wanted to get rid. To make matters worse, because he played for Town earlier in the season, he can’t be loaned out to another club in the football league because you can’t play for three teams in one season. He now has to knuckle down and impress Mark Fotheringham to get a chance in the first team – which seems like a tough ask when he couldn’t get into a League One team.

Rarmani Edmonds-Green returned from Wigan

Like Koroma, REG was sent back by Wigan rather than recalled by us and he’s stuck at Town until the summer because of the same three teams in a season rule. We’re well-stocked in central defence at the moment, so he may find it hard to get a chance now he’s back. I’m a bit baffled about why Edmonds-Green has struggled so much this season after he did so well last season on loan in League One. I thought he’d become a mainstay of our starting eleven but instead, he’s now going to have to play in the B Team to stay fit.

Scott High returned from Rotherham

We actively recalled High from Rotherham, which makes complete sense as they are direct relegation rivals and are a bit short in midfield. Why would we want one of our players to be helping a rival at our expense? He’s come straight back into the starting eleven since his return and has been… OK. I think some fans will continue to make the same criticisms of him that they did in his last spell in the team, that he’s a bit weak in the tackle and doesn’t get involved enough. He does, however, have an eye for a pass and is a bit more positive than our other central midfield options, so I’m pleased we’ve got him back to add some depth.

Kyle Hudlin returned from Wimbledon

Hudlin struggled to get into Wimbledon’s league team during his loan spell but he did really well when given a chance in whatever they’re now calling the LDV Vans Trophy. He scored goals for fun against poor teams in a competition that most teams have complete disdain for. But he didn’t ever replicate that in League Two games and so has ended up back in Huddersfield. He’s doing OK in the B Team and I’d like to see him on the bench for the first team so he can be wheeled on in the dying minutes to cause chaos if we’re chasing a game. Knocking it up to the big man is a strategy we’ve not done often enough in my eyes, so why not put the biggest man you can find and give it a go?

Jaheim Headley returned from Harrogate

Headley is probably the only loanee we’ve sent out that has genuinely thrived this season. Harrogate fans love him and sing his praises whenever they talk about our crop of loanees they have/had on their books. I thought his recall might have been to send him back out to a League One club to see how he manages a higher level. It seems we’re skipping that step and he’s now our backup left back. I don’t think he’s played a B Team game yet, which I’d guess is because he’s in the first-team squad. Given Ruffels is struggling for form at the moment and Ben Jackson seems to be frozen out for some reason, it might be that we see Headley get some minutes in the first team soon. 

Kieran Phillips returned from Morecambe

Phillips was going quite well for Morecambe in League One but sadly a hamstring injury has ruled him out for the rest of the season, so he’s come back to us so we can nurse him back to full health. He’s had rotten luck with injuries over his career so far and it’s really hampered his development.

(Kian Harratt isn’t on this list because he had his loan cancelled at Bradford before the January window after being fined for animal cruelty-related offenses. He is back at the club though, he’s had a telling off, been put on a course (I dread to think what that course looks like) and is now playing in the B Team)

Loan players recalled and sent out again

Ryan Schofield loan ended at Hibs and sent out to Crawley

This seemed like a sensible move after Schofield failed to play a single minute up in Scotland. It sounds like there have been assurances that he will get some game time at Crawley, which should give him time to build confidence and 

Josh Austerfield loan at Harrogate ended and sent out to Morecambe on loan 

Austerfield has done OK at Harrogate, so he’s being given the chance to step up and prove himself at League One. We must trust Morecambe with our youngsters, as Austerfield is following in Kieran Phillips’ footsteps, who has just returned after his injury.

Loanees returned to their parent club

Kaine Kesler-Heyden returned to Villa

Matt Lowton’s arrival made this move inevitable but I was still sad to see him go after he really picked up his form in his last few games for Town. He started brightly, tailed off massively but then turned it around towards the end. I think the main issue was that we never worked out how to play him and Sorba Thomas on the same wing together, which is funny, as both have now gone.

Luke Mbete returned to Manchester City

After Levi Colwill was so good last season, it was always going to be hard for Mbete to come in and fill his shoes. Though few will have expected him to fail so badly in his time at Huddersfield Town. He’s an England Under 21 International and Manchester City youth player, so there must be something about him but he looked an absolute mess whenever he played in our first team. I think the pace and physicality of men’s football were a huge shock to him and it led to repeated errors that led to goals being conceded. A shame it didn’t work but that’s the risk you take when bringing in untested prospects from Premier League academies. 

Players loaned out 

Sorba Thomas to Blackburn

This is the worst piece of business we’ve done this transfer window, in my opinion. I think that Sorba Thomas is our most creative player and his ability with set pieces is among the best in the division. It’s clear that he’s a personality that needs careful management and it seems that there’s been an issue behind the scenes that has led to him falling down the pecking order and being sent out on loan. I found the explanation from Mark Fotheringham quite aggravating, as he told the club website that he wasn’t going to get chances in our first team because we’ve got other options, so we’re loaning him out to a team far above us in the table that are willing to give him game time. That’s just wrong-headed, it makes no sense and it’s an insult to fans’ intelligence to pretend this loan was done for footballing reasons. Leigh Bromby has bragged in the past about how well the club managed Thomas off the field when he arrived from Boreham Wood, clearly, that has fallen by the wayside in recent times to have reached this point.

Aaron Rowe to Stockport County

I’m a bit confused about Aaron Rowe, he’s shown flashes of a player that could be very useful in the Championship but then disappears for six months or so with no reference to him. I don’t think it’s always an injury, either. Maybe it’s an attitude thing or maybe he struggles to consistently find decent form. Whatever the issue, I hope he tears it up during his loan and comes back ready to compete for a place in the first team.

Giosue Bellagambi to Salford City

This seems like a good opportunity for a young keeper to get some experience at a Football League club. We have quite a few young keepers on the books, so it makes sense to ship a few out on loan rather than have them waste away on the bench of the B Team.

Loick Ayina to Dundee United

The super-aggressive defender nearly got sent off for his gung-ho tackles against Preston in the FA Cup when he was given a chance in the first team. He’s not ready for the Championship but a bit of time with a struggling SPL team might be good for his development. One thing is for sure, he won’t be put off by any rough stuff, as he can more than handle himself on that front.

Players sold

Jon Russell to Barnsley

The only player we actually sold (though apparently, Blackburn are paying a fairly significant loan fee for Thomas) was Russell to Barnsley. I suspect the money involved will be fairly measly, as Russell was out of contract in the summer and out of favour. He’ll remain one of those what-might-have-been players for Town, as at the end of last season he looked like he could have been the future of our midfield but after Carlos left he quickly looked like an absolute carthorse who, admittedly, could ping a nice 40-yard ball out to the wings. He might thrive at Barnsley but the attitude and application he showed at times (I’m thinking of some clips I’ve seen of B Team games) was truly abysmal. 

Thoughts on the January transfer window

I can’t believe how many deals have been done this month at Town, our fax machine will be grateful for the rest now we’re in February. While it’s been busy, I’m less convinced that it’s been successful. Our survival chances have now, pretty much, been pinned on getting the best out of players that haven’t been consistently producing their best all that recently. If Mark Fotheringham is the top coach he is supposed to be then it will be no problem for him to draw out the latent talent within our new recruits and fit them into a system that suits their attributes. I’m not convinced he will though.

All the back and forth with recalling loan players strikes me as a bit muddled too. We’ve gone from having a threadbare squad before this window, to now having a huge squad. But most of the additional players we’ve brought back are ones that have failed to thrive on loan in Leagues One and Two. So what are the chances of them doing a job for us in the Championship? Slim, I would say.

Then there’s the exits of Thomas and Kesler-Hayden to consider. Two of the quicker and more creative players are leaving and we’re replacing them with unknown quantities. This may prove to be inspired if the likes of Hungbo and Knockaert start to produce but we’ll feel pretty silly in May if we go down while our top creator is helping another team push for promotion.