We’re in the deadzone of Town news, where the players are all on holiday, the season is over and nothing much is happening. There are still a few bits and pieces of Town news going on though, so I thought I’d put together a roundup article to summarise my thoughts on the recent Huddersfield Town-related goings on.
Here we go…
The Nagle takeover waiting game
The big thing that Town fans are all waiting on is the final confirmation that Kevin Nagle’s takeover is complete and the American can formally take the reins at Huddersfield Town. Nagle is limited in what he can say publicly at the moment but he’s confirmed that it’s progressing well and it sounds like we’re near the final stages of the League’s check to approve his purchase. Though I’m not sure anyone but the men with the shiny-buttoned blazers at the EFL really know for sure what’s going on with the timescale.
Steven Chicken in The Examiner is always keen to point out that the waiting period we’ve had is completely normal and the timescale is consistent with other recent takeovers. However, as a fan, it’s hard not to be impatient when we’ve got a big summer ahead and all the activity we want to see happen flows from this initial piece of business being concluded successfully.
Retained list
I won’t go line by line through the retained list as the majority of fans won’t have heard of many of the B Team players that were unlucky enough to find their contracts allowed to expire. I only hope that the club has processes in place to support these young men as they come to terms with the news they’ve not got a new deal
The most notable players on the list were Josh Koroma and Danny Ward, who were down as in ongoing negotiations and Josh Ruffels, who was released. I think the former pair can feel fortunate to be offered deals and the latter a bit unlucky to be let go. Josh Ruffels made 33 appearances last season and while he had some shockers at times, he became a steady performer by the end of the season. I think he’s been let go mostly because we have Nakayama coming back from injury with Headley and Jackson as youngsters who can provide cover.
On the other hand, Ward and Koroma are both players in areas on the pitch where we lack decent, experienced players. Ward isn’t always loved by fans but all the managers he’s played under at Town have consistently relied upon him. Koroma, despite looking awful prior to Warnock’s arrival, pretty much saved our season and resurrected his failing career in the last few months of the season. So he’s being offered a new deal based on the hope he can recreate his Neil Warnock form and not revert to how he played for everyone prior to that. Whether these players are willing to agree to the right wage is key, I’d respect the club for not throwing money at either player, as there are most likely other options if they are asking for huge wages.
Season review video
If you have eleven minutes available, I’d highly recommend you spend it watching this video from the people who make the And He Takes That Chance video. It must have taken a lot of effort to edit together and it’s a lovely compilation of the highs and lows of the season just finished at Huddersfield Town.
It’s crazy to think just how much went on in a single season, from the goal that wasn’t when they forgot to turn on the goal line technology, Mark Fotheringham’s insistence on things being better on another day, so many sloppy goals, Neil Warnock coming home, relegation seeming certain and then the most unlikely of escapes. This video captures all these moments and more with an excellent soundtrack.
Manager vacancy – Warnock’s return?
There’s nothing much to report in terms of our next managers, and as I alluded to earlier, it’s likely we won’t see much progress until the takeover completes. However, because there are still column inches to fill and no takes being played, there have been stories circulating about Neil Warnock coming back for another year. It sounds like these aren’t anything more than wishful thinking at this stage but I’d expect the job is there for Warnock if he wants it. He has been incredibly consistent in saying that he doesn’t want to do a full-time, full-season managerial job, and I have a feeling he’ll stick to that.
It might be nice to see Warnock have some other sort of role in the new structure of the club that could complement a new manager and give them the benefit of his experience without him getting in their way. A special advisor or executive coach or something like that, so he could do a day or two a week when it suits him. I think it would be smart to include Warnock, as the second things go slightly wrong for any new manager there will be a clamour for Warnock to return, so keeping him around will maybe address that issue for the next manager.
I don’t have any names to throw in the ring for who might be suitable. We don’t know enough about Nagle’s intentions with Town to know which manager is best to deliver them. I’d hope we’ve gone past Leigh Bromby’s constant quest to pluck rabbits out of hats with obscure appointments of untested coaches with little to no experience. While Wagner and Corberan were massive successes, Siewert, Schofield and Fotheringham were all disastrous and we can’t keep gambling the house on these all or nothing bets.
I’d rather we went for a more predictable option, who might not be lightning in a bottle but also won’t be picking fights with half his squad within a few weeks of turning up and telling obscure anecdotes about his father’s scaffolding business (not naming any names!).
In the past we’ve been linked with Michael Duff at Barnsley, which means we may be biding our time to see if they win their playoff final this weekend. If they fail to secure promotion, Town might swoop in to snap him up off the back of that disappointment. If they beat Sheffield Wednesday then I think we’ll have to look elsewhere, as I can’t see why he’d want to swap one bottom-end Championship club for another.
Was a teaser for Hogg’s testimonial accidentally tweeted?
I’ve been meaning to write a blog for a while but have only just got the time. Last Saturday the club’s official Twitter account Tweeted about there being eight Saturdays to go without any explanation of what this meant. They then deleted the tweet but I took a screenshot while it was still up on my phone’s screen.
It seems like the tweet is basically saying it’s not long until football returns to the John Smith’s Stadium, eight Saturday’s to be precise. By my reckoning, eight Saturdays on from last Saturday would be the 22nd of July. I think there are two possibilities for this tweet and both about equally likely, the first is that the admin has got terribly muddled with the number of Saturdays until the 5th of August, when the season actually starts. Or, they were teasing a friendly game, which might be Jonathon Hogg’s testimonial game on that Saturday.
We often don’t have home friendlies in preseason but I think this season could be an exception as Jonathan Hogg has now been with the club over 10 years and it would be fitting to mark the occasion with a testimonial. While the tradition started to give a financial boost to footballers reaching the end of their career as a reward for their loyalty to one club, I suspect in Hoggy’s case he’s not so hard up and may well use his testimonial as an opportunity to raise funds for a good cause.
As the tweet was deleted without further mention, all of this is pure speculation. But over the next few weeks we’ll most likely find out more about the club’s preseason plans. Even though the club feels a bit rudderless, as we’re in between the old and the new leaderships, there will be a full preseason schedule being put in place because the new manager, when they’re appointed, won’t have time to put one together.
This weekend’s playoffs and Premier League fixtures will decide the final few Championship slots
My final talking point is that we’ll find out the full Championship lineup for next season by the end of this weekend, as the playoffs take place at Wembley Stadium and the Premier League relegation race will be decided. It’s only a year since we were making the trip to London ourselves to see our opportunity to play in the Premier League cruelly taken away from us due to a dodgy VAR decision (and our inability to register a single shot on target in 90 minutes – but I’d rather blame the officials).
Today sees Luton take on Coventry in the Championship playoff final, and the loser of that game will have the consolation prize of getting to play us twice next season. I’m quite pleased that it’s these two teams that made it to the final, as they’ll both be interesting in their own way in the Premier League. Luton have an incredible story of growth up the Football League ladder and have achieved remarkable things on a very modest budget. Coventry have been consistently decent in the Championship for a number of seasons now and in Hamer and Gyokeres have two Premier League-quality players that can turn matches in their favour.
For selfish reasons, I’d prefer Luton to go up, as Coventry is a nearer away trip. It will also be entertaining to see Premier League pundits and commentators lose their minds about Luton’s ground and the entrances that are built in the middle of rows of houses. They’ll be all over that stuff.
The League One playoff final is going to give us another Yorkshire derby regardless of the outcome, as Sheffield Wednesday take on Barnsley. Despite the fact both teams are technically local rivals, I quite like Barnsley and want them to do well but really can’t stand Sheffield Wednesday or their big-headed fans. I’m sure there are some lovely Sheffield Wednesday fans out there but all the ones I ever come across seem to be relentless arrogant individuals who bleat on about how massive their club is despite their complete lack of recent achievements.
The other Championship spaces will be given to two of Leeds, Leicester or Everton. It seems likely to be Everton that avoids the drop, as they will start the day on Sunday outside the bottom three and a win against Bournemouth will keep them up regardless of results elsewhere. If they lose or draw then things get interesting, as that means Leicester or Leeds could leapfrog them if they win their games (though Leeds can only survive if Everton lose and Leicster fail to win).
Like most Town fans, I’ll be pleased to see Leeds come down, so we can have a couple of derby games against them. No doubt Leeds fans will insist that they don’t consider us proper rivals, despite the fact they sold more tickets when they played us than nearly any other second tier team last time they were in the Championship. I’d also like to see Leicester come down because it’s a nice away day. I went to Everton when we were in the Premier League, and despite it being a lovely, historic ground to look at, it’s absolutely garbage as a football ground to attend games in and feels like a fire trap. I’d rather we played Everton in a few season’s time when they’ve moved to their swanky new stadium on the docks.
Superb Spirit. Keep comments coming please if only musings because of everything being up in the air at the moment.
Loved the comments about Luton’s ground.
Thanks for your kind comment Peter. I’ll try to keep semi-regular posts coming during the summer. There’s not much to talk about currently but things will no doubt hot up when Nagle’s takeover completes.
Ruffels NOT Ruffles. It appears to be a common mistake that I have seen many times by many people, but it is not hard to spell!!!.
Thanks for letting me know, I’ve fixed my transgression in the article. I normally spell his name correctly but either sloppiness crept in or my phone’s autocorrect sabotaged me, as I wrote that bit on my mobile while getting my youngest off to sleep.
Forgiven
Thanks TS for all your posts, I’ve really enjoyed reading them especially as you inspire sensible comments from other contributors; unless there’s some behind the scenes editing!
I write this while enjoying Coventry v Luton, like you two clubs I have a great deal of respect for. Town should have signed Adebyo, I notice that the game this season has a proper referee unlike last when mistakenly giving one last hurrah to the person who should long ago have been put out to grass, or should that be moss?
Finally a belated thanks to Nei (second great equalising goal) l Warnock. He has such an engaging and commanding personality that he managed to inspire an entire club as well as recognising a set of defenders who largeglly could do just that but couldn’t pass hence repeated long balls, creating confidence.
I always thought that Warnock was a “marmite” character but living in London I obviously know plenty of local supporters together with far more exiles like me and surprisingly (an old favourite Kasey Palmer comes on) he is almost universally liked.