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Tag: west brom

Angry Bruce, Sparkling Tino, Jon Russell: Submarine Commander, Schofield opinions and transfer shopping list – Notes on Huddersfield Town’s draw with West Brom

Angry Bruce, Sparkling Tino, Jon Russell: Submarine Commander, Schofield opinions and transfer shopping list – Notes on Huddersfield Town’s draw with West Brom

Matches
Huddersfield Town escaped a late penalty appeal to come away from their match against West Brom with a point. Which is more than they deserved from the balance of play but is less than any team should expect when they have a 2-0 lead early in the first half and are at home.  At least Town weren’t as bad as they were in their opening defeats, but there are still consistent issues in Danny Schofield’s team that point towards problems that need to be solved. Having said that, we also saw a moment of pure magic from Tino Anjorin, when he curled an absolute beauty into the top corner. So it wasn’t all grumbles! A lucky draw It’s unusual to throw away a 2-0 lead and to come away thankful to have hung on for the point but that was my overwhelming feeling after this game. West Brom were ...
Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on West Brom

Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on West Brom

Matches
Huddersfield Town take on West Bromwich Albion this afternoon in their first game for eleven days, following the postponement of last weekend’s game against Coventry. It’s likely to be a tricky fixture, West Brom sit in midtable after drawing too many of their games so far this season but their team is littered with quality players and even though they are managed by Steve Bruce (who I have held a grudge against ever since his days in charge of Town) they should still provide a stern test for Danny Schofield’s men. Speaking of Schofield, so far I’ve found his team selections a little bit easier to predict than his predecessor. He’s less inclined to make left-field changes and tends to prefer a settled lineup. Carlos liked to shake things up and tinker but Scoffa tends to stick with wha...
West Brom manager Steve Bruce’s awful Striker! novel – listen to it for free

West Brom manager Steve Bruce’s awful Striker! novel – listen to it for free

News
Steve Bruce didn't do particualrly well in his time as Huddersfield Town manager but he did, strangely enough, write a series of football themed novels during his time at Town. While the novels lack literary merit they are quite funny to read.  The original paperback copies of the novels have become collectors items and have been known to change hands for large sums of money. However, below is an audio version of Striker, Bruce's first novel. Given that Huddersfield Town will face Steve Bruce's West Brom tonight it seemed like a good time to share this intereting piece of footballing history. The reading of the novel was produced by TalkSport a while ago and released as a podcast. The narration is pretty good, with the soft Geordie tones of Bruce well replicated and there are ...
“Replacing O’Brien requires two players” – Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on West Brom

“Replacing O’Brien requires two players” – Predicted Huddersfield Town XI to take on West Brom

Matches
Huddersfield Town face West Brom tonight at the Hawthorns. The game represents an opportunity for Town to get back to winning ways after losing to Forest in the cup on Monday night. The defeat meant Town no longer have their unbeaten streak in all competitions but remain unbeaten in the league since November. West Bromwich Albion were widely fancied to make a quick return to the Premier League after being relegated this year but like so many teams (including Town) they’ve struggled to adjust to life back in the Championship and have seen their season fizzle out. They are currently on one of the worst runs of form in the league and their fans are seriously unhappy with what they’ve seen so far under new manager Steve Bruce.  After rotating his team for the Forest game, tonight w...
Predicted lineup, Grant’s return, mounting injuries, predictions and ownership issues – A preview of Town v WBA

Predicted lineup, Grant’s return, mounting injuries, predictions and ownership issues – A preview of Town v WBA

Matches
This recent international break feels like it was incredibly long, so it’s a treat to get back to watching Town again today. While it was nice to see Emile Smith Rowe do so well for England, I’m otherwise left entirely cold by international football outside of the big tournaments and I’m glad there won’t be another international break until next March.  Today’s opponents are West Bromwich Albion, one of the league’s stronger teams but they’re not as good as Fulham and Bournemouth and have dropped a few points away from home in recent times. Looking at the players they have available makes them look to be an intimidating opponent but Town have already shown this season that they can, on their day, match anyone. Sadly they’ve also shown that on a bad day we can be really bad too. Le...
Karlan Grant’s transfer to West Brom – who got the best out of the deal?

Karlan Grant’s transfer to West Brom – who got the best out of the deal?

Transfers
Huddersfield Town finally sold Karlan Grant to West Bromwich Albion last night for an undisclosed fee that is rumoured to be around £15m. It's a transfer saga that has rumbled on for almost the entirety of this window so it's a relief to be able to move on from this story and to talk about something else. Before we do though, I'm going to take a look at who got the best out of this deal. Karlan Grant I'd say the most obvious winner is Grant himself. He's signed a six-year deal at his new club which is a huge commitment from West Brom. Not only that, Grant is almost certainly going to be getting a massive pay rise out of this move. I saw a rumour that he'll be earning £60,000 a week at West Brom, which may not be true but if it's remotely close to the figure he's going to be paid then h...
Why are there so many articles about Karlan Grant’s move to West Brom but so little progress?

Why are there so many articles about Karlan Grant’s move to West Brom but so little progress?

Transfers
The ongoing story of West Brom’s pursuit of Huddersfield Town’s Karlan Grant has long since passed into the realm of being a “saga”. Every single day for the last few weeks there are headlines about the potential deal being on the verge of happening. Despite the player wanting the move, Huddersfield Town being willing to let him go and West Brom desperately needing a striker the move seems to be stuck. While there hasn't been any discernable change in the status of this move for week, we still get a deluge of articles commenting on the proposed transfer. Here are a few of the reasons why there are so many articles written about this potential transfer and so few genuine changes in what’s happening. The deal is genuinely stuck It feels like most transfer deals have taken longer than us...
The Karlan Grant to West Brom saga – A Huddersfield Town fan’s perspective

The Karlan Grant to West Brom saga – A Huddersfield Town fan’s perspective

Transfers
Karlan Grant has been linked with a move away from Huddersfield Town since almost the moment he arrived at the club. He was signed in the January transfer window of the season we were relegated and it was immediately clear that he was one of the very few players in our squad at the time that deserved to be playing at that level. The low-level rumours of him wanting to move back to the top-flight have been there since summer 2019 but this desire was confirmed by the club early this summer, making it almost certain he would be on his way out of the door if an acceptable offer came in. For the last month or so there have been persistent rumours that a deal has been close between Hudderfield Town, West Brom and Karlan Grant but it has not yet got over the line. The speculation about the tran...
Washing off the stench of relegation – 6 thoughts about Town’s win over West Brom

Washing off the stench of relegation – 6 thoughts about Town’s win over West Brom

Matches
Huddersfield Town beat West Brom 2-1 last night, making them almost certain to retain their Championship status. It was a remarkable performance from Town, with every player contributing well and pulling together when it really counted. Here are a few of my thoughts about the game: Awful officials One thing I'd like to get out of the way early is how bad the officials were last night. Chalobah was booked after 18 minutes for time wasting, which I don't think I've ever seen before. I can understand the desire for the ref to speed up play but surely a quick word would have worked. Instead he left a defender one mistimed tackle away from red with 72 minutes still to play. It seemed petty, which summed up his general approach to the game. The biggest two errors made by the officials came a lit...
5 things to look out for in the Huddersfield Town v West Brom game

5 things to look out for in the Huddersfield Town v West Brom game

Matches
Huddersfield Town take on West Bromwich Albion tonight in a game with huge implications for the top and bottom of the Championship table. West Brom need a win to avoid Brentford pushing them out of the automatic promotion spot. Town are fighting for their survival, with a win likely to see them safe and anything less leaving them sweating on other results. Here are a few things to look out for in tonight's game... Will Town play for a draw? Town have managed three nil-nil draws in lockdown so far and another tonight, though dire to watch, would put them in a much stronger position in the league. Not safe but far more likely to not need anything from our final game at Millwall. Given West Brom have a much better team than Town and have played better football, I suspect Danny Cowley won...