Huddersfield Town fans were shocked by the news yesterday that Danny Cowley had been “relieved of his duties” as manager. The short statement made by the club cited that their former manager had a different vision about the direction the club should go in.
With so little to go on about the reasons for the sacking, there have been lots of rumours flying around about why Danny Cowley was given his marching orders after successfully guiding Huddersfield Town to Championship safety with a game to spare.
As this is a fan-run blog rather than an esteemed news publication, I have no issues with spreading around unsubstantiated rumours for entertainment purposes. Please bear in mind, anything written below that turns out to be true is pure coincidence and has not been the result of any inside knowledge.
With all that said, here are some possible explanations for why Danny Cowley got the sack:
A screaming argument took place about this summer’s transfer business
Occam’s Razor is a problem-solving theory that states the most obvious answer to a question is most likely to the be the correct one. With that in mind, it could be that Danny Cowley got the sack for exactly the reason stated in the press release yesterday.
Danny Cowley is an ambitious manager and before joining Huddersfield Town was seen as one of the country’s most promising coaches. Because of that, he is likely to be willing to push hard to get in players that will help him achieve his goals. It’s obvious that Town’s current squad is a long way short of challenging at the top end of the table, so he may have gone to Phil with a long shopping list of expensive players.
Phil Hodgkinson has been outspoken about the new reality that is dawning in football and how the financial side needs to calm down a bit. As Town are currently hampered by failed big-money signings that are stuck on large wages, I can imagine Phil would not be keen on splashing any cash until some of our previous transfer mistakes have been addressed.
I’ll not link to the article due to the publication, but The Sun wrote late last night about Phil wanting more control over transfers and pushing for more foreign players to join. If this is the case, then I can understand why Danny Cowley wouldn’t agree to that level of external interference.
Whether this theoretical disagreement was a screaming match or a civilised discussion is a mystery (and it doesn’t particularly matter). However, if we’re going to guess what went on behind the scenes, falling out over the size of the war chest for the upcoming transfer window seems as likely an explanation as any other.
He’s not really been sacked and it’s another marketing stunt to announce the new kit
From the sensible suggestion to the more outlandish, there have been people online that seem to genuinely think Town fans are the victims of a practical joke. After the fake kit reveal with Paddy Power at the start of the current season, some think the season is being closed with an even more elaborate prank.
I joked on Twitter yesterday that the Cowley brothers might be reannounced at the Millwall game on Wednesday night, sporting Town’s new kit with a big bookies’ logo on their chest. I’d like to stress that I was only joking and even though the club can seem chaotic at the moment, they surely wouldn’t do something so outlandish as to stage a fake manager sacking.
So, for completeness, I’ve included this rumour but there is almost certainly no truth in it.
Danny Cowley was sacked for putting himself forward for the Bristol City job
This seems like a strange rumour. Given we paid substantial compensation to Lincoln for the Cowleys’ services, it would be a bit odd to sack them rather than agreeing compensation for them with their next club.
I recall a similar rumour doing the rounds about Lee Clark getting the sack from Town because he was sniffing around another managerial job.
It could be that Danny Cowley has done the same. It wouldn’t be a crazy idea that he’s been considering his position at Town after a gruelling season and still plenty of hard work ahead to turn this basket case of a club around.
Danny Cowley has become the bookies’ favourite for the Bristol City job but I suspect that may just be a byproduct of him being well qualified to coach in the Championship and suddenly becoming available.
Time will tell if there is any truth to this rumour.
They were hard to work with behind the scenes
I’ve seen a few fans speculate online that the Cowleys were sacked for being difficult to work with. Having seen how passionate they both get on the touchline during games, I can imagine they are both outspoken and determined when dealing with important issues. However, I’d hope this wouldn’t justify sacking them as this passionate approach is a symptom of how much they care.
It would make the ownership of the club look pretty thin skinned if they sacked the manager just because they had an argument. Besides, lots of money has been spent on recruiting this managerial team, to break it up over a heated exchange or two would seem financially reckless to me.
The style of football wasn’t good enough
It seems very unlikely to me that the Cowleys have gone because the football or the results under them haven’t been good enough. They did a remarkable job of stopping Town’s slide into League One and instead guided us to safety with a game to spare. That was their objective from day one and they achieved it.
I know some fans expected more from the squad we have but the truth is that we’ve got a fairly poor and unbalanced Championship squad and the coaches have wrung every last drop they can out of these players.
The Cowleys came into a relegation fight and have had to manage under that pressure since their arrival. Had the same kind of football and results persisted next season then questions could have legitimately been asked, particularly if they were given chance to build their own team.
But the fact they managed to get the results they did was impressive even if the style of football played to get some of those results was far from impressive.
Phil Hodgkinson wants to give himself the job of manager
I thought I’d finish on another one of the more ridiculous rumours. Some people have speculated that Big Phil is going to back himself to manage the team next season. While that kind of decision would make a great Netflix documentary, it would spell disaster for nearly any club.
This isn’t a criticism of Phil Hodgkinson but any owner thinking they can manage a football team would be so deluded that they would be certain to fail.
I know some people are inclined to believe everything they read, so to set those fans’ minds at rest: Phil Hodgkinson has said he would never even talk to a manager about the team selection, never mind try to influence it. So the idea of him actually taking charge of the day-to-day management of the team is clearly not in his thoughts.
Will we ever find out what went on?
It could be literally years before we get the full story about this last few days, if we ever hear it at all. Dean Hoyle gave a very candid interview to the And He Takes That Chance podcast a few months ago. He told some great stories about managerial comings and goings during his time as chairman, which he felt able to do after he had stepped back from the club. It could be that Phil is able to give us the warts and all version of what happened when he steps down from the club in the future but I wouldn’t expect to hear the full story any time soon.
In the short term, I think the best we can hope for is a sanitised, PR friendly explanation that will be aimed at placating fans and smoothing things over before the new manager is welcomed to the club.
Have you heard any rumours that haven’t been covered above? Pop them in the comments below.