The YP's chief football writer Stuart Rayner discusses the appointment of Lee Grant as Huddersfield Town’s new manager, the rebuild job he faces and the level of expectation on him and the Terriers ahead of the 2025-26 League One campaign ...
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00:00Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Football Talk podcast from the Yorkshire
00:19Post. It's Phil Harrison here standing in for Mark Singleton as host just for the next
00:24few weeks as we bring you occasional updates on everything that's going on in and around
00:29the Yorkshire football scene. I'm joined by Stuart Rayner, the Yorkshire Post Chief Football
00:33Writer and in a moment we're going to be talking about Huddersfield Town's appointment of Lee
00:37Grant as their new manager, taking over from John Worthington who obviously had followed
00:43on in the footsteps of Michael Duff who was sacked earlier on in the year. It's been a tough
00:48old year, tough old season for Huddersfield Town. There were high hopes that they would
00:52be in and around the promotion places and for a while they were but it all turned a bit
00:57sour leading to Duff's sacking by Kevin Nagle, the colourful owner at the Terriers. But in
01:06Lee Grant, Stuart, they've got someone who's coming in. It's his first managerial appointment
01:10on his own. Obviously, he's been coaching for quite some time at Ipswich. But what has been
01:16the general reaction amongst fans and others to Lee Grant's appointment?
01:21I think it's been quite positive in the main. I mean, it is a gamble but then every managerial
01:27appointment is a gamble. This one probably a little bit more so purely because it's his
01:33first gig. But I just feel with the way things have been going at Huddersfield Town the last
01:38few years, things have got quite stale. And I think it's all set up for a new face, you know,
01:47somebody without any baggage. With 10 players released in the summer, there can be a freshness
01:53to the squad as well. And I think, you know, Grant's come in and said some really, said all
01:59the right things really, and got Huddersfield fans positive about it. Kevin Nagle's been saying
02:06there's been a, you know, a rush of interest in season tickets, which went, you know, by all
02:13accounts were not selling very well until then. So yeah, I think there's a general air of positivity,
02:20but, you know, we will have to wait and see. We'll have to wait and see how things, how things pan out
02:27when it actually gets down to the football. But it's, it's, it's good that they've got this fresh
02:31face. It's good that he seems to be being handed a lot of, a lot of responsibility. And I think people
02:38in general are quite looking forward to, to the new season, whereas they probably weren't even a
02:44week earlier. I think one of the most important distinctions that you made upon his appointment
02:49was the fact that his title is actually manager, not head coach. That obviously points to, there
02:55seems to be a bit of debate at the moment, or a bit, it's not very clear yet whether they're going
02:58to go with a sporting director in the future. What is the latest on that situation? I think
03:04Kevin Nagle also referred to it in a statement he made over the weekend, or was it at the end of last week?
03:09Yeah, well, I think it is significant. I mean, a lot of, a lot of head coaches just sort of refer
03:16to themselves as managers almost by accident, because, you know, there isn't, there isn't a great
03:23deal of difference. A lot of the time nowadays with head of recruitments and sporting directors
03:28and all this malarkey. But I just think it's a sign from Kevin Nagle that he, as I said earlier,
03:33he wants to give Lee Grant lots of responsibility. Lee Grant wants to take on lots of responsibility,
03:39wants to stand and fall by his own decisions. So yeah, when, when Grant spoke to the media on
03:46Thursday, he was saying no, no decision had been reached yet about whether there would be a sporting
03:52director. Kevin Nagle, I think referred in one of his interviews to interviews taking place, but whether
03:59that was for a sporting director or somebody slightly watered down, you know, head of recruitment or
04:05someone who works under the manager, we'll wait and see. But I think, I think whether there is one
04:10or not, I think Lee Grant will go a long way towards directing this recruitment drive this summer,
04:18which I think is, I think is really important. I mean, you might look at it and say, well, he's got no
04:23experience, wouldn't it be better if he had someone alongside him who does? But I think you can always
04:29get in an awkward situation when you've got a sporting director who signs, signs players that
04:35the manager or the head coach doesn't want, doesn't rate and doesn't see a place for. So it's, it's,
04:40it's good that, let's say, coming in with this fresh start, I think it's good that he's been given that,
04:44that extra responsibility.
04:47He comes in after three years, I think, at Sweetestown, wasn't it, as working with Kieran McKenna,
04:52two promotions under his belt, one relegation, sadly, obviously, as it was a difficult time
04:55for the Tractor Boys, obviously, in that, in the Premier League. Interestingly,
04:59he was there as the forwards coach, and given his goalkeeping background, some people might
05:03find that a bit strange. But as I think you mentioned last week, somewhere, and it's actually
05:08provides a unique insight into what forwards need to do to beat goalkeepers. So it's probably a very
05:12inspired decision by McKenna.
05:15Well, it worked. I mean, in the first two seasons, I think Ipswich scored 196 goals,
05:20and dried up a bit when they got to the reality check of the Premier League. But yeah,
05:25obviously, in a poacher-turned-gamekeeper way, he knows what he's doing. And it gives it a little
05:32bit of extra depth. I mean, we've had these daft comments in the past. I remember Ken Bates,
05:38even, once saying that goalkeepers couldn't be managers, and that, you know, there's been this
05:42this stupid attitude in the past. But, you know, you think of people like Nuno Espirito
05:47De Santo this season, Carlos Cobran and Jose Mourinho were goalkeepers of a lesser standard,
05:55shall we say. But there's more goalkeeper managers coming through, and why not? You know,
06:00I don't think there's any position from which you can or can't be a good or bad manager. And yeah,
06:06the fact that he's demonstrated that he can work well with forwards, obviously,
06:11knows a lot about goalkeeping from his 22-year playing career, you know, as a goalkeeper,
06:17shows he's a well-rounded coach, and that's exactly what you need.
06:21You mentioned earlier about things have perhaps gone stale at Huddersfield.
06:25There'll probably be various, you could argue there are various people responsible, right,
06:29in different ways. But there were signs of promise under Duff at times last season. But I
06:35think as Leon Wapshull, our colleague, referred to on a number of occasions, and no doubt yourself,
06:41he was hampered by a chronic injury list at Huddersfield, which I think some people thought
06:46would buy him a bit more time than what he actually got. What are the biggest sort of priorities for
06:50Grant in terms of what he needs to do to this squad to sort of turn them into a contender for promotion next
06:58season, whether that be by the playoffs or even an automatic spot?
07:02Yeah, well, I mean, as I mentioned earlier, they've released 10 players, so he's got quite a
07:06lot of freedom. I mean, he's got a lot of work to do, but there's a lot of freedom at the same time.
07:12I mean, they've pretty much cleared out the defence. You know, they've still got Brodie Spencer,
07:19who's sort of a young defensive leader, but cleared out the likes of Matty Pearson and Tom
07:25Lees and what have you. So there's a fresh start there. The other end of the field, scoring goals
07:29was a real problem last season. You know, having signed a couple of players in January and Dion Charles
07:35and Joe Taylor, they're still there, but they need to find the right formula in terms of creating and
07:41making chances. But really, when Duff came in, as you rightly said, there were, you know, there was
07:49certainly times of promise, but the football was a little bit turgid at times, to be perfectly honest
07:58with you. Duff's job was to come in and work with what he had and turn things around quickly in the
08:03space of the year. I think Grants is a bit more of a fresh start. He can always pick whatever
08:12formation he wants to play because he doesn't have to be too shaped by players when he hasn't
08:17got that many players to work with at the start. And hopefully, and this is not a strength of Kevin
08:22Nagels, hopefully, despite all Grants talk about, you know, wanting to win games straight away and
08:29win promotions and all that sort of thing. Hopefully there is a bit of patience. And he's actually
08:34judged on the progress that he makes in his first season, rather than simply the cold facts of
08:42wins, losses and draws. Because I think to do this job properly, I think now it needs to be a proper
08:48rebuilding job to take, which will take a bit of time. So hopefully he gets that.
08:52Given it's his first job, his first job where he is going to be in charge, Lee Grant,
09:00it was important, I suppose, that he has a sort of, in terms of before accepting the job, obviously,
09:06we'll have been aware of possibly what some people want to describe as a trigger happy
09:11way of operating that Kevin Nagel has perhaps displayed at times. But he will need to rely on
09:18people that he has worked with and worked under or played alongside in the past. And I think he
09:22pointed to something like that in his press conference, didn't he, where he said he'd sort
09:25of sought the opinion and advice and counsel of a number of people, both for who he'd played for,
09:31played alongside and worked with in a coaching capacity, obviously, including Kieran McKenna and others.
09:37Yeah, I mean, it was, it was very noticeable that when Huddersfield put the press release out
09:43to say that Lee Grant had got the job, it's very, very unusual to see a quote from his former club
09:48when, when that happens. But apparently Kieran McKenna was very keen to sort of give his ringing
09:53endorsements of what Huddersfield were getting. And of course, he was a first time manager who won
09:59promotion from League One. He had, he had a sort of six month leading because he came in mid-season and
10:05then won it the next season. So he's a, he's a very good person to pick the brains off. And there's been
10:10talk yet to be confirmed because Grant's waiting for his full coaching staff to be in place before
10:16he announces them. But as we speak, there's talk that Paul McShane, the former Hull City defender,
10:21who worked with Grant at Manchester United, will be part of this coaching staff. And yes,
10:28you would expect a few, he was saying, you know, about what a big network he's got, he's obviously
10:33played for a lot of different clubs, worked at a lot of different clubs. And, you know, a bit like
10:38Connor Horan at Barnsley, for example, been very switched on for many years now, he'd said
10:43sort of over a decade, to the fact that he wanted to be a manager. So he's clearly
10:48kept the right contact, stayed in touch with the right people, asked the right questions over that
10:52time. And hopefully, we start to see some of that come into fruition. He's also done a lot of coaching
10:57courses, with a lot of other top coaches, some of whom were further down the line than him,
11:03some of whom have started out. So when, yeah, there's lots of people he can turn to. And I
11:08get the impression that he's not too proud to do that.
11:12And he's given a suggestion as to the kind of style of football that he wants his Huddersfield
11:18team to play? Or is it too early, I guess, given that he has got quite a lot of personnel to bring
11:23in still before he can sort of formulate that, that kind of style?
11:27I think he's very clear in his own mind about it. He's been a little bit cagey
11:32about going into great detail about it. But, you know, he made a comment to
11:38Kevin Nagel about where he thought Huddersfield had gone wrong in previous years. And he said,
11:45he said it was because they weren't playing Northern football, which Kevin Nagel,
11:51whether wittingly or not, rather cleverly span into Yorkshire football. Aggressive,
11:58front-footed, maybe a bit more direct than some of these Namby-Palmy-Southern football types.
12:04So I think we'll see a lot of that. I think we'll see a lot of the traits that we saw
12:08in that Ipswich Town team, given he was so involved with that. You know, very attacking, very
12:14quick on the counter-attack and that sort of thing. I think we'll see, I think we'll certainly see them
12:21try to play very entertaining football because I think that's something Kevin Nagel puts a premium
12:26on. I think with Grant's background and the way he's talked early on, I think that's, you know,
12:32I think they're both going to be working towards that. So yeah, hopefully they're able to make that
12:37reality because as I say, even when things were at their best under Duff and even Carlos Corbran,
12:45who was very successful there, it wasn't always the most entertaining fair, but there is a real
12:49opportunity now to sort of start again from the lower base and get that chemistry right.
12:55And of course, it's unique in a way that the three teams that we have in League One, obviously,
13:01Barnsley, Rotherham and Huddersfield all start the next season with new manager. I think one of
13:05the things you argued or wrote about last week sometime was the fact of how important patience
13:13is going to be for those three clubs. Obviously, Doncaster and Bradford coming up from League Two
13:17to make it a very interesting lead one for the Yorkshire Post and all the supporters in terms of
13:22White Rose derbies, et cetera. But one thing that is going to be key for Grant and the other two,
13:28Connor Hurrian and Matt Hamshaw, is patience. And, you know, is Kevin Nagel, I mean, how patient will
13:35Kevin Nagel be? Well, we can only wait and see. History doesn't bode too well in that respect,
13:40but hopefully he's got somebody who believes in and gives him that. Yeah, I think in terms of all
13:46those three clubs who have stayed in League One from Yorkshire, yeah, I think they've all benefited
13:52from what I talked about, from having somebody new rather than somebody with a bit of baggage.
13:56But the payoff of that is, as I say, you need to give them time. There's no guarantees one way or the
14:04other. You know, we've seen Chris Davies win the division this season as a new manager. As I alluded
14:08to earlier, we saw what Kieran McKenna did and equally we've seen first-timers fail. It's not really
14:14about that. It's about how they bring their skills to the job. But, you know, regardless, they are
14:21going to need a bit of time. They are going to hit a stumble. You know, even if this is a really good
14:28season, there'll be one down the line. Of course there will. It's life and it's football. So yeah,
14:34unlike Hurrian and Matt Hamshaw, Grant doesn't have that same connection with the club and the fans
14:40yet that buys you that extra bit of time. So hopefully when the tough times come, and I say
14:46they will come, Kevin Nagel can just show that a bit more patience than he has done with some of
14:53his predecessors. And just lastly, what would constitute a successful season for
14:58Huddersfield Town next time? Obviously promotion, but surely any kind of improvement on where they ended
15:03up last season would be seen for a first-time manager to be a sign of progress, no? Or is the
15:09expectation possibly too high for some people? Yeah. I mean, I think there's a lot of expectation.
15:17You know, it's not that many years ago, Huddersfield were in the Premier League. People look at that and
15:23they'll, you know, look at the, no doubt, the free reign that Grant's been given. You know, if he gets
15:31a large budget, then budget two and say, well, you know, he needs to deliver on that. But as I sort of
15:36alluded to earlier, I think with all three of those clubs that we've just mentioned to, I think there
15:42has to be a sort of deeper look at it. And this season coming has to be viewed in terms of, as you
15:49said then, what progress they make, how the football evolves and all that sort of thing, and not be so
15:55wedded to results in season one. Maybe go for, you know, maybe you sort of round that up in season two. But, you know,
16:03that said, that's not to write off promotion. That's just to say that it shouldn't be the
16:08be-all and end-all for this manager at this particular time. But we know what football's like.
16:15If results do go badly, people are going to get impatient. Of course they are. And yeah,
16:21there will be expectations on Grant. He's kind of raised them himself and said that he enjoys them.
16:27But yeah, I just think people have got to look at the bigger picture, at the things that are going
16:36on at that football club. And hopefully the widespread improvements, not just in terms of the first team,
16:41but, you know, improving the injury record, continuing to improve the academy and the pathway
16:48to the academy, all these sort of things, is how Grant should be judged this year. But let's say,
16:54whether he will is another matter. YorkshirePost.co.uk