Liam Manning’s permanent departure from Huddersfield Town was confirmed last week. Few will have been surprised to hear he wasn’t coming back, given the short break he took to address what is clearly a long-term issue. Every sympathy should be extended to Manning and I wish him well for his future but it also sends Huddersfield Town back to the drawing board and having to pick yet another manager.
It’s tempting to say we’ve got to get this decision right. But we said that before Lee Grant was appointed. And before Michael Duff and all the other failed coaches that have quickly been in and out of the door. So while it feels like we’ve got to get this decision right, recent history suggests we may well get it wrong anyway.
Thoughts on Manning’s departure
I really feel for Manning and admire his bravery in holding his hand up and admitting he needed to take time out for himself and his family. Putting family first and prioritising your mental health are both admirable decisions; hopefully he will take the time he needs and return to management if and when he feels ready.
Sentiment aside, Manning’s short term in charge of Town was a mixed bag, with a few explosive matches earlier on where we did remarkably well with ten men, twice in a row but saw diminishing returns from then on. The early momentum stuttered, mostly because of his work trying to shore up the defence, which led to the goals drying up at the other end of the pitch too. In fairness, his time in charge was too short lived to draw definitive conclusions but there wasn’t a notable improvement over the Lee Grant spell, as was widely hoped.
Liam Manning was willing to drop down to League One to take on the challenge at town because he’d had a miserable spell at Norwich which culminated in him being sacked. But prior to that he’d had a decent track record and seemed like a good catch. In different circumstances, it’s quite possible that he would have thrived at Town but sadly we’ll never really know what he could have achieved if he didn’t have personal issues to deal with.
Stead and/or Drury may be an option
The obvious first consideration for replacing Manning would be the coaches that stepped up during his leave of absence, Jon Stead and Martin Drury. The results they achieved during their spell in charge look underwhelming on paper but fans that watched their games will have noticed an obvious improvement in the style of play. And their results could have looked a lot better if we hadn’t thrown away many points by conceding late goals in key games.
There was more purpose and grit on display when Stead and Drury were involved as well as using tactics that got the best out of the players they had available. Their media work was impressive too, with both of them communicating in a plain-speaking style that engaged well with fans, hardly surprising given they’re both from the Huddersfield area.
There are two main reasons why I wouldn’t want to appoint these two. Firstly, I don’t think a co-manager situation is a good way to arrange a football team. There needs to be a single person who makes the calls and takes responsibility. I think a job share makes it confusing to know who’s in charge and can get messy. This could be solved by one taking on the role of head coach and the other stepping down to assistant. Would either be willing to step aside for the other though? My second concern is that neither of them have proper experience of being head coach. This was Lee Grant’s principal drawback when he was selected as manager and it was also the main reason he failed. It seems harsh to effectively punish these two for the failings of a past manager but after seeing a highly rated coach flounder when given the top job, it would seem too risky to go with inexperience again.
I wouldn’t be too disappointed with Stead and Drury carrying on, it would provide a small amount of continuity and they showed plenty of promise in their brief spell in charge. I just don’t think I would be willing to take the chance on them at this point. For whatever reason, Huddersfield Town seems to be a tricky club to manage well. We’ve seen a lot of managers with wide experience and success with other teams struggle at Town for no obvious reason. I think it’s too big a job for inexperienced coaches to step up into.
Having said I wouldn’t like to see them as co-managers of Town, I do hope that they can continue in the coaching staff at Town. New managers typically like to bring in their own coaching team but it would be a shame to lose two coaches that seem to have a bit about them and who have a personal connection to the club.
What kind of manager do we want?
If Stead and Drury don’t get the nod then the top brass at Town will have to go back out into the managerial market and try to find someone they prefer. It’s quite likely this search is already well underway and there are rumblings online that interviews are taking place right now.
This summer is a bit different to last summer, as we now have a director of football (or is it sporting director?) in place, so we’re looking for a head coach not a manager. Chris Markham has already stated that he wants to embed a clear style of play at Town and recruitment of players and managers should fit around this. And as well as having to play an agreed style, they’ll also have to be willing to work underneath a director of football. Some managers like having someone else to deal with the higher level stuff so they can focus on coaching but plenty of others want to have control over things that often fall under the director of football’s remit.
Piecing it together from things people at the club have said, I suspect the overarching style we’re looking for is front-footed, attacking football that gets results and is exciting to watch. But it sounds more like a wish list than a clear strategy. It’s hard to imagine any manager would say in an interview that they prefer to play back-footed, defensive football that rarely gets results and is boring to watch, even though that’s what we’ve ended up getting from most of our recent managers.
Who might it be? Naming names
It would feel weird to write this article without throwing a few names around, so despite not having any inside knowledge, I’ll speculate a little bit.
David Wagner is the name that always comes up when there’s a vacancy at Town but if he wanted to come back, I think he would have done so already by now. I don’t think he’d be able to get the level of influence and control he had during his last spell, it could spoil the memories of the Premier League years if he returns and fails, he’s settled in Germany at the moment and I’m not sure he’d be willing to drop down to League One.
Having laid out practical reasons David Wagner is unlikely to return, I’d still be very excited if we were able to convince him to come back. Some of that is driven by pure nostalgia but I also think he’d be very effective in League One. Whipping the team into good physical shape, drilling them on 4-2-3-1 gegenpressing and the complete devotion he’d have from fans would probably be more than enough to get us competing at the top end of League One. Sadly, I can’t see it happening.
Grant McCann and Darren Ferguson have both been bandied around recently as potential candidates for the Town job. Neither are currently managing Peterborough, which is strange as they tend to take turns with that job. Ferguson is currently out of work and McCann is managing Doncaster Rovers. Both have got a reasonable track record and have probably had more ups than downs during their time managing in and around this level. McCann is my preferred option of these two but we’d have to cough up a compensation fee to Donny to prise him away and it seems like throwing money down the drain, considering the average shelf life of a Town manager.
Richie Wellens has also been suggested as a possible option. He launched a scathing but refreshing attack on his Leyton Orient players at the end of the season, suggesting they had wasted a year of their careers with their lacklustre performances. I don’t know much about him as a person but he’s another seasoned League One manager that would most likely be able to get something out of our squad. And having a reputation for holding players accountable might not be such a bad thing, even if it’s a tactic best used sparingly.
The most experienced name being meaningfully linked with our vacancy is Tony Mowbray, though he’s also been tipped to join to Blackburn too, so it could all just be idle speculation. Mowbray has vast experience but also has been away from football while he went through cancer treatment. Thankfully he seems to have been given the all clear and be in the market for a new role. I’m not sure the Town job would interest him, given he’s used to managing at a higher level and, from the outside, we must look like a basketcase due to the way we dispose of managers quicker than most people change their toothbrush.
In our current position, it seems likely any manager willing to take the job will be some combination of inexperienced, tarnished by a previous failure or a bit boring. Maybe, given our history of taking risks that don’t pay off, a boring option might be what we need.
Stick with Stead and Drury Huddersfield men they will do their best for their home town club,
I Agree Stead and Drury ideal for me love the club local lads with lots of passion.
Also able to do what 6 other managers could not do, and that is get the players playing very attractive football and back to playing with pride. they looked a different team .
I liked how much Stead and particularly Drury, would scream instructions onto the pitch when the players weren’t doing what they should be. It really wound me up when Grant and Duff would complain after the match that the players didn’t do what they should rather than literally just telling the players when it’s happening during the game.
I totally agree; Messrs Stead and Drury have improved the performance of the team (apart from the Mansfield game, of course), they live and breathe the club and have plenty of experience between them. Most importantly, they know the players and have the opportunity to continue with their style of football, whereas another change of manager would mean more chopping and changing – which is the last thing we want. As long as they sign an experienced “box to box” midfielder and a burly centre forward, we should be ok next season. Failing this, it might be just a case of signing up a team of wrestlers to play the accepted League One style of football.
Think you’re wrong with Stead/Drury No reason why they can’t work together and if we bring in a different manager it’s odds on we’ll lose them.
I thought I was in the majority in prefering we went for an experienced manager but the comments are all saying we should stick with Stead and Drury, so you’re not alone.
I think you’re right that we’ll struggle to keep them if we get a different manager in. Even if the new man wants to keep them instead of bringing in his own team, I suspect Stead and Drury have now got a taste for management and will look for opportunities elsewhere.
I’d rather we went with a manager that’s got a track record of getting teams out of this league but I wouldn’t be too gutted if we promoted from within. I agree about their style of football being good to watch during their caretaker spell and they do “get it” in terms of what a Huddersfield Town team should be.
I wouldn’t be too disappointed if we resorted to bully boy tactics next season and signed a few bruisers. A team of wrestlers with at least a bit of skill too would be a good way to get our of League One. I’d have a big, awkward striker, a ball-playing midfielder and a few tricky wingers on my shopping list of the summer. Though with the size of the squad already, we’ll probably need to shift a few to make space.
Think you’re wrong with Stead/Drury No reason why they can’t work together and if we bring in a different manager it’s odds on we’ll lose them.
Thanks for your comment Chilly, everyone else who’s commented seems to have a similar thing. I think coming from Huddersfield is a massive bonus for Stead and Drury, as it’s easier for them to understand what fans want and talk in a way that connects with fans.
Richie Wellens for me, could be the right type of appointment, at the right time to finally bring the success both he and the club are yearning.
I don’t know much about Wellens but whenever I’ve listened to his comments when he’s come up against Town, he seems to talk sense and say what he means. He might not be the next big thing but I think he knows this level and could be trusted with the resources we have at our disposal.
I agree with keeping Jon and Martin in post but I have long advocated for bringing in Neil Warnock in a mentor role. I suggested that for Lee and still think having that experiance to call on for advice and support would help them get experiance on tap to build their own expertise but enable Neil to take less hands on to work with both managers and help in team selection and transfers as clearly people dealing with negotiations keep getting it wrong and spending money which misses the quality we need especially goal scoring talent which when loaned out do better like Joran Rhodes at Blackpool and this year Joe Taylor at Wigan, if both had stayed at Town their Goals could have tipped the balance. There seems a lot right at Town with the owner keeping his word but players not meshing as a team and transfers poor but the academy bringing results snapped up by other teams as prospects have contracts ending so experience like Neils may help more than the manager/coach situation as he has probably more experiance than the rest put together.
I think Lee Grant really needed an old hand to guide him but we left it too long to replace Mark Cartwright with Chris Markham. I remember when Neil Warnock was at Town, he mentioned how he’d offered clubs his services as a kind of advisor and none had taken him up. He’s got such a lot of experience in the game that he’d be able to give most young managers a few pointers. Though it always seems like new managers think they know better and don’t value experience.
Keeping hold of our better academy players, at least until they give the first team a few years of service, is essential to make our academy system work. We’ve seen too many decent young players have their heads turned and not agreed contracts after they’ve broken into the first team. It seems like Ashia might be the next one in this group but at least we have the option for a one-year extension in his deal, so we can get a reasonable fee if he leaves.
I think Drury/Stead is the cheap and easy way, although results did improve in the last seven games, and if we could have defended to the 110th min. we would have finished with more points but no better position, if Mr Nagle has to spend big money it would be better spent on a top class manager rather than a massive players wage bill, I would love him to try and get someone like Tony Pulis on board, someone who can organise a team and get them playing to win,
it might be asking too much, HTFC have had enough of the Grants, Duffs etc. we are not far off having a half decent side, it just needs a Greaves, Buxton, type, please do not consider David Wagner, his football was so dull even though he took us to the promised land on load of penalties, but who knows what will happen its Huddersfield Town we are talking about. UTT
I agree that it would be good to invest in a manager who’s managed at the top level. The tricky thing is that money isn’t the only factor and most well respected managers would probably look at how often we sack managers and how many failed signings are clogging up our squad and decide it wouldn’t be worth risking their reputation on dropping down to our level regardless of the pots of cash we might offer.
As for Wagner’s football being dull, you might have a point but he also played a system that created many of my all-time favourite moments as a Town fan. The system may have been regimented and structured to the point of being dull but the places it took us were far from dull.
It’s true that Town never do what they expect. So after being rubbish for so long, the most surprising thing would for us to be quite good next. As ever, it’s the hope that kills you.
Town need a class head coach who deliver a good team not coaches who are not interested
Agreed. I would like to see the next head coach have a bit of passion and to be able to pass this on to the players too. Rather than a sterile and too polished style of modern manager.
In my view , Let’s go for an underrated Championship manager . Marti Cifuentes .
Only problem, we are in league 1. Although
Marti needs time to re build, his managerial career. This has taken big knocks.
At Leicester they were 13Th in the Championship. Now in league 1.
With Kevins commitment to pushing , Huddersfield up the pyramid league table. This takes money, a good infrastructure, etc.
This guy should be brought on board asap .
UTT – ⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️
That’s the first time I’ve seen his name linked with Town but he might be an interesting choice. I think there’s probably a fairly large list of managers we would like to bring in but they won’t step down to our level. Another reason it would be nice to get back to the Championship, as managers can then see that they’re one good season away from the Premier League.
This is a block we’ve been round a few too many times!
I’m surprised at your lack of enthusiasm for Stead & Drury. It was a combo that didn’t do a lot wrong and were learning on the job. If they’ve now got the taste for it, provided they see eye-to-eye, it might work. The fans would get behind them I think.
And it surely has to be a better option than going back on the merrygoround of second-rate coaches who sometimes succeed but also often fail, and to be honest speak uninspiring bull💩 in after-match interviews. I want some honesty, some forthright talking, It’s not enough to hear words like Manning spoke from the off – “I want my players to leave nothing out there” – if they really don’t know what they’re doing or haven’t sufficient skills to carry out the instructions, you’ll usually lose despite “leaving nothing out there”.
Manning also said that putting in maximum effort was non-negotiable and expected. Yet we saw some pretty limp performances from our players under him. Obviously he had other things going on at the time but I agree with your point about liking managers that speak like real people rather than an AI trained on the FA Coaching manual.
I wouldn’t be gutted if Stead and Drury get the nod but I do want the next manager to have a good chance of sticking around in the job. Newbie managers don’t have the track record to ride out tricky spells, so would most likely get sacked during their first sticky patch. Lee Grant seemed like he was the real deal in preseason but his gameplan withered when it was tested in League One games. So that’s why I’d prefer to go with a more tried and tested route.
Drury and Stead have had a few months with this squad and should be in a position to say who’s worth keeping and who should find another club, also which positions need strengthening, this gives them a head start on a new head coach likely to say “I’ll give everyone a chance” only to find out 2 months into the season that he’s stuck with injury prone players or a donkey that can’t hit a barn door from 10 yards . I doubt any “big name” will come, and whoever came would be starting from scratch, so Drury for head coach and Stead for first team coach sounds like a gamble worth taking. Good, straight talking Huddersfield lads, give them a go.
Drury and Stead would have a head start over an outsider manager coming in and their connection to Huddersfield definitely counts in their favour too. I just wish at least one of them had some experience of managing at a decent level. Saying that, Wagner and Corberan hadn’t got much experience and they did OK. And Andre Breitenreiter, Darren Moore and Michael Duff had great CVs but it didn’t work for them.
Stead and Drury for me Town through and through with permission to kick 🫏,demote ,and get shutt,and maybe a mentor in the stand viewing and to advise only
I thought it was brave of them to pick Sebine over May up front but the decision was right for the team and meant the team could play how they wanted them to play. So I think they will both know what the team needs and how to make us better next season. As I’ve read through all these comments in favour of Stead and Drury it’s made me feel a bit more positive about the idea of them getting the job full time.