Some leap aboard what looks a sinking ship. When David Webb joined Huddersfield Town in August as head of football operations, they had no manager, had been knocked out of the Carabao Cup by League One Lincoln and appeared broken by one of the worst ever Premier League seasons.
Now a return of 11 wins in 30 games and 18th position may not sound spectacular for a club who had spent successive seasons in the Premier League, but it marks an emphatic turnaround after going 20 matches without victory and triumphing just once in 36 attempts.
The holes have been plugged, the course of direction changed. For Webb, formerly of Tottenham, Bournemouth and Southampton and most recently technical director of Ostersunds in Sweden, his first decision was his biggest: who to appoint.
He plucked for the pair who had finished off Jan Siewert: Lincoln’s managerial double act of Danny and Nicky Cowley, the brothers who had risen from the ninth tier and the Essex Senior League. “We did quite a lot of homework on them as coaches,” Webb said. “We liked the fact that Danny and Nicky have worked their way up the hard way. They have had good success in the leagues below. They have achieved promotions and had a good run in the FA Cup and won the FA Trophy. We also liked the work they did at Lincoln off the field, they were very hands-on, very community based, which really represents the values of Huddersfield as well.”
The immediate priority, however, was to regain the winning feeling. “The first thing was building the confidence, the spirit and trying to bring the club back together again and to where it was because at that time it hadn’t won a game for such a long time.” The wait was ended at Stoke City on October 1; a second win followed four days later.
Huddersfield’s wretched start of one point from eight games meant an immediate return to the top flight was impossible, but their approach and budget was always underpinned by realism. “They weren’t going to go on a suicide mission of using parachute payments to try and force their way back up, which can end in disaster for a lot of clubs with financial chaos,” Webb said. “It was one of the things that attracted me to the club.”
His task involved recalibrating the squad. There can be a natural exodus of those who have joined during the Premier League years and who often tend to be among the bigger earners. Terence Kongolo, Isaac Mbenza, Adama Diakhaby and Florent Hadergjonaj were loaned out in January but the squad was not decimated.
“There wouldn’t be a painful situation where we needed a mass exit. We could do it gradually, over time, to make significant changes but over a one- or two-year period rather than ‘we need to get everyone out in January,’” Webb explained.
Risk-free additions in Sheffield United centre-back Richard Stearman, who knows the Championship, and Lincoln left-back Harry Toffolo, who knows the Cowleys, have helped bolster the back line. Huddersfield expect interest in the summer in forward Karlan Grant, whose tally of 16 goals has only been bettered by three Championship players, and Webb cited Che Adams, who Birmingham City sold for £15 million (Dh64m) last year, as a precedent.
But there is hope Huddersfield, whose 2017 promotion ranked among the most surprising in recent years, have laid the groundwork for another chance to challenge. “The Championship is so variable,” Webb explained. “It is not like the Premier League where you have leagues within leagues. We would like to think that we can be really competitive next year. That is our aim.”
