"What I have heard" - Huddersfield Town backed to seal David Wagner return | OneFootball

FLW's Huddersfield Town fan pundit has given his reaction to reports that David Wagner has been offered the chance to return to the club.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Huddersfield Town have reportedly offered former manager David Wagner the chance to return to the John Smith's Stadium.

That's according to talkSPORT journalist Alex Crook, who claims that Huddersfield are keen to bring Wagner back to the club almost six-and-a-half years after his first spell in West Yorkshire came to an end.

The Terriers have been without a permanent manager since parting company with Michael Duff in March, despite sitting just one point outside the play-off places in League One at the time.

Owner Kevin Nagle decided against bringing in a replacement for Duff immediately, instead opting to stick with caretaker Jon Worthington until the end of the season, but he won just two of his 10 games in charge, and a horror run of six defeats in their final six games saw Town finish 10th in the table, a huge 14 points adrift of the top six.

During his previous spell at the club, Wagner, who has been out of work since being sacked by Norwich City last May, led Huddersfield to promotion to the Premier League in the 2016-17 campaign before successfully keeping them in the top flight the following season, but he resigned in January 2019 with his side sitting bottom of the table.

Daily Mail journalist Mike Keegan reported last month that while Wagner would be open to a return to the John Smith's Stadium at some stage, he did not believe that it was currently the right time for him to come back, but now he has seemingly been offered the job, it remains to be seen if he will have a change of heart.

Huddersfield Town reaction given to David Wagner return speculation

When asked for his immediate reaction to reports that Wagner has been offered the job, FLW's Huddersfield Town fan pundit Graeme Rayner said that he would be excited by his return, but he claimed that the 53-year-old would only accept the role if he was given full control over transfers.

"I think that this is probably the best appointment Huddersfield fans and the board could hope for given the current situation at the club," Graeme said.

"I'm not sure we could attract any other name that would give the fans as much excitement or optimism as the return of David Wagner would.

"Obviously he came to the club under slightly different circumstances last time, we were still stuck in a rut, but we were in a rut one division higher.

"However, he revolutionised the club, and the one thing that he did was manage to unite the entire community around him and his team, purely by the way that he spoke and through the team spirit he embedded in the club and the ethos that ran through the way the team conducted themselves on and off the pitch.

"If he can recreate that atmosphere, that work ethic and that fight, then I certainly see him being successful at getting us out of League One.

"Whether he could, longer-term, lead us back to the Premier League, I doubt, I think we are probably a Championship-level club.

"If he comes in, I would like to see us having the ability to be in the play-off area in the Championship or at least a top-half finish within three years, but that's way down the line.

"What I have heard is that he's interested, but only if he gets entire control over transfers.

"Whether than means he wants to effectively have a say over who becomes sporting director or whether he even wants us to have a sporting director, I don't know.

"But I have heard that what he really wants is control over recruitment, which suggests that he understands the problem we've faced in recent seasons.

"If Wagner is the man that comes in and if he can relaunch almost, then I think that would be a massive positive and probably the best we could hope for.

"I think it would be the obvious, but very clever, move by Kevin Nagle because it would immediately create a feel-good atmosphere at the club, so I hope it's true.

"If not, I hope that the person who does get the job someone who can cause as much excitement, otherwise they are going to be someone who is almost a bit of an anti-climax because people are now talking about this and are really hopeful that Wagner is going to come in.

"I really, really hope it's true from that point of view as well because we need some to cheer us all up."

Huddersfield Town return would be a big gamble for David Wagner

It is easy to see why Huddersfield are keen for Wagner to return after the miracles he performed during his first spell at the club, and given that he guided Norwich to the Championship play-offs in his last managerial role, his appointment would be something of a coup for the Terriers.

However, it has been an incredibly underwhelming couple of seasons for Town under Nagle's ownership, and supporters made their frustrations clear after the 4-1 defeat to Leyton Orient on the final day on Saturday, so Wagner would not be walking into the most stable of environments, while he would also be facing a huge rebuilding job after the club released nine first-team players earlier this week.

As Graeme says, the arrival of a popular figure like Wagner would at least help to unite a divided fan base and bring some much-needed positivity back to the John Smith's Stadium, but returning to a former club can often be a big risk for managers, and the German must think carefully before accepting the job.