Two sackings, one new arrival and another steps back – Things are hotting up at Huddersfield Town

While we’re still waiting for the big news of official confirmation of Kevin Nagle’s takeover of Huddersfield Town being officially approved and the announcement of the widely reported rumour of Neil Warnock’s (latest) return – there is at least some news to report from Huddersfield Town. 

The club have appointed Jake Edwards as the new CEO of the club and at the same time, David Baldwin has stepped back from Managing Director to a more advisory role. Edwards hasn’t hung around, as in his first full day in the job he sacked Leigh Bromby, the head of football operations, and Mark Clements, the goalkeeping coach.

Here are my thoughts on these latest comings and goings at Town.

Jake Edwards appointed as CEO – an impressive appointment

I’m not the type of person to start dancing in the streets when a new executive is announced. It’s not exactly like signing a 20-goal-a-season striker. However, Jake Edwards is an impressive appointment, as he comes with an excellent reputation that he has built from being in charge of the second tier of football in America. 

Edwards has overseen a huge period of growth while he was President of the United Soccer League, hugely expanding the number of teams participating and the amount of interest in the league. If he brings the same kind of ambition to Huddersfield Town and helps to grow the club in a similar fashion, he will have done a very good job.

While he’s been out in America for a number of years, he’s actually from the north-west of England and supports Manchester United (you can’t have everything). So he’s a good cultural fit in terms of bridging the gap between an American owner and an English club, with him having experienced both sides of the game and perhaps being able to bring something over from the US that might help Town to develop an edge over our rivals. Or if nothing else, his experience in America may mean he has some ideas to increase the in-stadium razzmatazz on a matchday beyond dizzy penalties and a remote control truck delivering the match ball.

My hope for Edwards is that I barely mention him again on this blog. I like boring executives that get their heads down and do a quiet, decent job without a lot of fuss. If fans are talking about them, it’s usually because they’ve got something wrong. So, it would be good to have him come in and competently get on with the job. 

If you’d like to get to know a bit more about him, the video below includes him talking quite a bit about his experience, including some information about his playing days.

David Baldwin takes a backseat

Jake Edwards’ arrival means that David Baldwin is now going back to being a “strategic advisor to the club’s ownership and board”, which sounds like one of those nice jobs where you get paid a decent sum for very little work. But it’s sensible, during this period of uncertainty and change, to keep someone with Baldwin’s experience and knowledge of the game around as a source of advice and support to the people coming in.

David Baldwin was brought in to find a buyer for the club initially and then took on more responsibility as Dean Hoyle stepped back from the running of the club. I’m nowhere near close enough to the goings on at Town to make an informed assessment, but from the outside he seems to have done his job well. If nothing else, he delivered on his most important job of finding a buyer for the club. While we’re yet to know exactly what kind of owner Kevin Nagle will be, the early signs seem promising.

Leigh Bromby is given the boot

When Mark Fotheringham was appointed back in September, Leigh Bromby said he wanted to be judged on that appointment. Getting let go seems to be his chickens coming home to roost. He picked the wrong head coach too many times. And while it’s not an exact science, the logic behind his decision making seemed deeply flawed. After seeing the inexperienced Danny Schofield struggle so much, he really shouldn’t have gone with yet more inexperience with Fotheringham. 

You don’t have to go far on social media to find some fairly scathing opinions about Leigh Bromby but I’m less keen to celebrate his departure. It’s worth remembering that he was being held up as a mastermind when we reached the playoffs on a shoestring budget, with an innovative manager and a load of clever signings that Bromby and his recruitment team had turned up. OK, he’s made a series of bad calls since that high-water mark of his Town tenure but there was a time when he was considered to be a major part of Town’s over-achievement. 

I’m not trying to say that Bromby was great, I think my point is more that he’s neither the messiah nor a very naughty boy. Like all of us, he’s somewhere in the middle: someone who was trying their best, sometimes getting things right and other times not so much. He’s got too much wrong in recent times, so his departure feels like the right call. I mentioned in my recent article about Kevin Nagle’s to-do list that Bromby’s role was far reaching but his most important task was picking head coaches and he picked two duds in Schofield and Fotheringham. So those two bad calls are enough to justify his departure. You could probably point to some pretty dodgy recent player recruitment to further pile on to the list but I don’t think that’s required.

While I think this is a correct decision, I find it a bit distasteful when people start celebrating someone losing their job. As far as I could tell, he was always trying his best for Huddersfield Town and, while he could come across a bit brash and full of himself, he was basically a decent guy. I personally hope he goes on to do well in the future (providing it’s not at one of our rivals).

Paul Clements also leaves the club

One departure I was less sure about was the news that much-liked goalkeeping coach, Paul Clements was shown the door at the same time as Bromby. While the latter’s job performance has meant his sacking has been expected for months now, Clements has been admired by every manager and head coach he’s worked under and has always been spoken of fondly by the keepers he’s worked with. 

Clem can most likely take a large portion of the credit for picking Lee Nicholls when he was the second choice keeper at MK Dons and then turning him into one of the best English keepers outside the Premier League. He’s also done a lot of work in the community and has always taken time out to interact with fans when I’ve seen him at games. 

So, my initial reaction to this news was that he may have been treated harshly. This may be even more true if the rumours were correct that Norwich recently wanted both him and Narcis Pelach and only Pelach left the club – suggesting Clements may have turned down a good offer to join Norwich in favour of sticking around at Town to only get sacked a few weeks later.

But, football is a cutthroat business unfortunately, and it is common to clear the decks in preparation for a new coaching team coming in. If it’s true that Warnock is coming back, then he may have requested a goalkeeping coach that he prefers to work with. If Warnock really is coming back, then I suspect he’ll be given whatever backroom team he wants, within reason.

I’m sad to see a loyal servant to the club leave so abruptly, particularly when it comes only a few weeks after he had his family on the pitch after the final game, celebrating survival. But I’m also pretty sure he’ll be snapped up by another club soon.

What’s next for Huddersfield Town?

The Daily Mail are reporting that Neil Warnock will be unveiled as our 23/24 manager later today, so that’s most likely the next big announcement to come. I’ve no idea who their source is, it could even be Warnock himself, but they must feel confident about it to be publishing the story. We’ll know by the end of today if they’re reliable or not.

While it seems very likely that Warnock is going to carry on the job he started last season, it’s worth remembering that there were similarly confident reports that David Wagner was about to return to Huddersfield Town last year shortly before Mark Fotheringham was announced. So nothing is official until it’s official.