Huddersfield Town | Page 39 | Vital Football

Huddersfield Town

Status
Not open for further replies.
clanfordimp said:
Just watched a Huddesfield training session with the Cowley's microphoned up.
Very intense and thorough session with great enthusiasm from the brothers and they new the names of every single player which isn't bad when consider they have been there a couple of days.
I know most people dont give a monkeys now but I just found it interesting.
Click to expand...
stuck the link up. clanfordimp....it`s gonna piss some people but no one is forced to watch
https://www.htafc.com/news/2019/september/behind-the-scenes-at-the-cowleys-session/
 
clanfordimp said:
Just watched a Huddesfield training session with the Cowley's microphoned up.
Very intense and thorough session with great enthusiasm from the brothers and they new the names of every single player which isn't bad when consider they have been there a couple of days.
I know most people dont give a monkeys now but I just found it interesting.
Click to expand...
It's not that I dont give a monkeys, I care very much that they have a successful career. This is all a bit weird, kinda like stalking a girlfriend that just dumped you for another.

I am still hurt and upset by this and can't face hearing about their new relationship. Might feel more like taking an interest when I've found love agian.
 
clanfordimp said:
Just watched a Huddesfield training session with the Cowley's microphoned up.
Very intense and thorough session with great enthusiasm from the brothers and they new the names of every single player which isn't bad when consider they have been there a couple of days.
I know most people dont give a monkeys now but I just found it interesting.
Click to expand...

Time to refocus your attention on something worthwhile that means something to you...
 
Having weathered the storm during close season, the transfer window shut, I think most of us thought we'd get at least another season with them here. However getting off to a flyer in league 1 and beating Huddersfield at home (running Everton close). appears to have been our undoing.

Have my doubts that Huddersfield was the right move for them, but it is what it is. Hope they do well, I'll certainly be watching on Sunday when they play Wednesday, to see how it goes.

We are still in a good position, the future is bright, but it's only red and white!
 
After mulling things over for the last few days, I can honestly say I feel no bitterness towards the Cowley's at all.

I did feel gutted and a bit betrayed when I heard the news, but that's because sport is emotional for everyone involved. But for the people in football, it's their careers and livelihoods too, that's the reality of it. If some of the figures are to be believed, it's the equivalent of an average person earning £25,000 a year and suddenly being offered £100/£150/£200,000 a year by a (slightly) bigger company, with more wages and bonuses should you continue to do well. And if you don't, you'll still get a tidy payoff. I know I'd find that hard to turn down, no matter how much I loved my current role.

And yes, they left at a bad time. But football is fickle and it's a 2 way street. Had our recent run continued and we dropped into the relegation spots, I'm sure people would start to ask questions. And if we were in serious trouble with 6 games to go, I doubt anyone asking these questions would caveat it with saying "but let's give them until the end of the season as sacking them now would be bad timing for them". It works both ways.

For me, this has been the best 3 years I've had as a City supporter. Yes, I've had good times before them, and I'm sure I'll have good times after them, but the Cowley era has been something special. They're no longer Lincoln City but they will always be a big part of our history. I wish them all the best and I'll be interested to see how they get on in the future.
 
clanfordimp said:
Just watched a Huddesfield training session with the Cowley's microphoned up.
Very intense and thorough session with great enthusiasm from the brothers and they new the names of every single player which isn't bad when consider they have been there a couple of days.
I know most people dont give a monkeys now but I just found it interesting.
Click to expand...

He probably knew all their names from when we played them
 
I wish them and their families long and happy lives.
But quite frankly this thread wants dumping now, what Huddersfield town do or do not do has no bearing on the future of the Imps.
We should all be concentrated 100% on backing the Imps and the threads on here
Want to be relevant to the Imps now and moving forwards.
I can assured you the Cowley's will be concentrating on one thing and one thing only and that is Huddersfield Town.
History as they say is past not the present.
Up the Imps.
 
Interesting article by Gregor Robertson in The Times:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...-toughest-challenge-at-huddersfield-8jrqtsmwz


The rise of Danny Cowley, the new Huddersfield Town manager, and his brother and assistant Nicky, began in the Essex Senior League at Concord Rangers, who they ascended three tiers to the National League South with meagre resources. They led Braintree Town to the National League play-off semi-finals in 2016, taking the Grimsby Town team this columnist played for to extra time in the second leg with a group of players assembled on a quarter of our playing budget, armed with remarkable team spirit, organisation and endeavour.

They led Lincoln City to the National League and League Two titles and the club’s first visit to Wembley, where they lifted the EFL trophy, in 2018. A city was inspired by that remarkable voyage to the FA Cup quarter-final in 2017, which also gripped the nation. Crowds at Sincil Bank trebled.

In the last couple of years they resisted overtures from Ipswich Town, Nottingham Forest, West Bromwich Albion, Hull City and Sheffield Wednesday. But on Tuesday they finally agreed to take the next step in their burgeoning careers with Huddersfield, relegated from the Premier League last season, without a win in 17 games in all competitions and dumped out of the Carabao Cup last month by, erm, Lincoln.

So why now? The reasons for a manager wishing to test himself at a higher level are usually not that hard to decipher. Danny Cowley said at his unveiling on Tuesday that he didn’t want to “die wondering”. He has been given assurances about control over recruitment. And of course the financial rewards will be enormous for two men who were PE teachers at FitzWimarc school in Essex until little more than three years ago.

You would have to look pretty hard to find anyone who doesn’t think Huddersfield have made an astute appointment. But the same has been said for numerous predecessors and such moves for a lower-league manager by Championship clubs remain relatively rare.

As history shows, successfully bridging the gulf is no mean feat. Only three Championship clubs other than Huddersfield have managers or head coaches who joined from lower league clubs. The most recent was Grant McCann, the former Doncaster Rovers manager, who was poached by Hull City in the summer. While it is too early to gauge his chances on Humberside, Hull reside in 20th place with five points from their opening six games.

Nathan Jones, the highly rated former Luton Town manager, was lured away by Stoke City in January. In three seasons at Kenilworth Road the Welshman had lifted the club from the lower reaches of League Two to the verge of the Championship, scoring 301 goals in 170 games in the process, and leaving with the best win rate of any manager in Luton’s history. Stoke, however, are winless and languishing at the foot of the table and Jones will need to find his fourth league win since arriving at the club pretty soon.

The third is Lee Johnson, the Bristol City manager, who left Barnsley for Ashton Gate in 2016. He has endured fallow periods when the pressure has spiked, but a rare patience has proved well-founded and City, fifth in the Championship, are looking forward with optimism.

Dean Smith, the Aston Villa manager, who left Walsall for Brentford in 2015, was similarly blessed with an employer with long-term vision, but few lower-league managers are that fortunate. Looking further back over the past decade, there have been many more misses than hits. The tenures of Russell Slade (Leyton Orient to Cardiff City, 2014), Uwe Rosler (Brentford to Wigan, 2013), Dean Saunders (Doncaster to Wolves, 2013), Keith Hill (Rochdale to Barnsley, 2011) and Darren Ferguson (Peterborough to Preston, 2010) were shorter than two seasons and none are remembered particularly fondly.

Perhaps the closest parallel to the Cowleys, though, is Paul Hurst who, before his arrival at Ipswich Town last summer, also cut his teeth in non-League and in 2018 very nearly led Shrewsbury Town to League One promotion with one of the smallest budgets in the division. Defeat by Rotherham United in the League One play-off final in his first full season in Shropshire followed promotions with Grimsby Town, Boston United and Ilkeston Town during a decade-long journey towards a shot at the second tier. Hurst was sacked after just 14 games and the Ipswich crashed out of the Championship with a whimper last season.

Hurst, like Jones at Stoke, found a dissonant dressing room and the challenge of galvanising a group of millionaires smarting from relegation or exclusion from the team may not be as straightforward as engaging the naughty school children the Cowleys once taught and compared footballers to in Tuesday’s press conference.

Gary Rowett (Burton Albion to Birmingham City, 2014) has proved himself a capable manager at Championship level but would almost certainly agree. Since his spells in charge of Derby County and Stoke City, two clubs with hefty resources, expectation levels and egos within their ranks, the 45-year-old has spoken about life being easier when money was tight and the job simply about improving your players on the training ground.

The truth is that the most common route to success, and longevity, as a manager in the Championship is leading a club there yourself. Neil Harris, the Millwall manager, took the club up via the League One play-offs in 2017. Paul Cook, the Wigan manager who cut his teeth with Accrington Stanley, Chesterfield and Portsmouth, won automatic League One promotion with the Latics in 2018. Likewise, Lee Bowyer, the Charlton Athletic manager, won last season’s League One play-offs and is unbeaten in second this term.

Of course, Chris Wilder, the Sheffield United manager, went further still, taking Sheffield United from League One to the Premier League in the space of three seasons. Paul Lambert did the same at Norwich City with back-to-back promotions between 2009 and 2011.

Ascending to the second tier, though, with a team you built and your standing at a club firmly entrenched, is a very different dynamic. The Cowleys had that at Lincoln City, presently fifth in League One, where promotion this season was a realistic ambition.

Who knows, perhaps they will soon come to wonder if the grass was really greener?
 
gijsbert_bos said:
Interesting article by Gregor Robertson in The Times:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...-toughest-challenge-at-huddersfield-8jrqtsmwz


The rise of Danny Cowley, the new Huddersfield Town manager, and his brother and assistant Nicky, began in the Essex Senior League at Concord Rangers, who they ascended three tiers to the National League South with meagre resources. They led Braintree Town to the National League play-off semi-finals in 2016, taking the Grimsby Town team this columnist played for to extra time in the second leg with a group of players assembled on a quarter of our playing budget, armed with remarkable team spirit, organisation and endeavour.

They led Lincoln City to the National League and League Two titles and the club’s first visit to Wembley, where they lifted the EFL trophy, in 2018. A city was inspired by that remarkable voyage to the FA Cup quarter-final in 2017, which also gripped the nation. Crowds at Sincil Bank trebled.

In the last couple of years they resisted overtures from Ipswich Town, Nottingham Forest, West Bromwich Albion, Hull City and Sheffield Wednesday. But on Tuesday they finally agreed to take the next step in their burgeoning careers with Huddersfield, relegated from the Premier League last season, without a win in 17 games in all competitions and dumped out of the Carabao Cup last month by, erm, Lincoln.

So why now? The reasons for a manager wishing to test himself at a higher level are usually not that hard to decipher. Danny Cowley said at his unveiling on Tuesday that he didn’t want to “die wondering”. He has been given assurances about control over recruitment. And of course the financial rewards will be enormous for two men who were PE teachers at FitzWimarc school in Essex until little more than three years ago.

You would have to look pretty hard to find anyone who doesn’t think Huddersfield have made an astute appointment. But the same has been said for numerous predecessors and such moves for a lower-league manager by Championship clubs remain relatively rare.

As history shows, successfully bridging the gulf is no mean feat. Only three Championship clubs other than Huddersfield have managers or head coaches who joined from lower league clubs. The most recent was Grant McCann, the former Doncaster Rovers manager, who was poached by Hull City in the summer. While it is too early to gauge his chances on Humberside, Hull reside in 20th place with five points from their opening six games.

Nathan Jones, the highly rated former Luton Town manager, was lured away by Stoke City in January. In three seasons at Kenilworth Road the Welshman had lifted the club from the lower reaches of League Two to the verge of the Championship, scoring 301 goals in 170 games in the process, and leaving with the best win rate of any manager in Luton’s history. Stoke, however, are winless and languishing at the foot of the table and Jones will need to find his fourth league win since arriving at the club pretty soon.

The third is Lee Johnson, the Bristol City manager, who left Barnsley for Ashton Gate in 2016. He has endured fallow periods when the pressure has spiked, but a rare patience has proved well-founded and City, fifth in the Championship, are looking forward with optimism.

Dean Smith, the Aston Villa manager, who left Walsall for Brentford in 2015, was similarly blessed with an employer with long-term vision, but few lower-league managers are that fortunate. Looking further back over the past decade, there have been many more misses than hits. The tenures of Russell Slade (Leyton Orient to Cardiff City, 2014), Uwe Rosler (Brentford to Wigan, 2013), Dean Saunders (Doncaster to Wolves, 2013), Keith Hill (Rochdale to Barnsley, 2011) and Darren Ferguson (Peterborough to Preston, 2010) were shorter than two seasons and none are remembered particularly fondly.

Perhaps the closest parallel to the Cowleys, though, is Paul Hurst who, before his arrival at Ipswich Town last summer, also cut his teeth in non-League and in 2018 very nearly led Shrewsbury Town to League One promotion with one of the smallest budgets in the division. Defeat by Rotherham United in the League One play-off final in his first full season in Shropshire followed promotions with Grimsby Town, Boston United and Ilkeston Town during a decade-long journey towards a shot at the second tier. Hurst was sacked after just 14 games and the Ipswich crashed out of the Championship with a whimper last season.

Hurst, like Jones at Stoke, found a dissonant dressing room and the challenge of galvanising a group of millionaires smarting from relegation or exclusion from the team may not be as straightforward as engaging the naughty school children the Cowleys once taught and compared footballers to in Tuesday’s press conference.

Gary Rowett (Burton Albion to Birmingham City, 2014) has proved himself a capable manager at Championship level but would almost certainly agree. Since his spells in charge of Derby County and Stoke City, two clubs with hefty resources, expectation levels and egos within their ranks, the 45-year-old has spoken about life being easier when money was tight and the job simply about improving your players on the training ground.

The truth is that the most common route to success, and longevity, as a manager in the Championship is leading a club there yourself. Neil Harris, the Millwall manager, took the club up via the League One play-offs in 2017. Paul Cook, the Wigan manager who cut his teeth with Accrington Stanley, Chesterfield and Portsmouth, won automatic League One promotion with the Latics in 2018. Likewise, Lee Bowyer, the Charlton Athletic manager, won last season’s League One play-offs and is unbeaten in second this term.

Of course, Chris Wilder, the Sheffield United manager, went further still, taking Sheffield United from League One to the Premier League in the space of three seasons. Paul Lambert did the same at Norwich City with back-to-back promotions between 2009 and 2011.

Ascending to the second tier, though, with a team you built and your standing at a club firmly entrenched, is a very different dynamic. The Cowleys had that at Lincoln City, presently fifth in League One, where promotion this season was a realistic ambition.

Who knows, perhaps they will soon come to wonder if the grass was really greener?
Click to expand...
Yes, they could have risked their long term reputation on a quick buck and an unnecessary early jump to higher status. This was always against their own principal of working their way up and achieving promotion through endeavour.
I don't begrudge them the move, but it doesn't sit right judging from their own previous attitude and standards.
 
Excellent article and sets out the pro, cons and pitfalls of lower league managers making the transition to higher league management opportunities - not many making this successfully, but perhaps the Cowleys will be the exception - hope for their sake that they are.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.