"A huge risk” - Huddersfield Town warned over potential Ipswich Town swoop in new manager hunt | OneFootball

The latest in FLW's Terrace Talk series sees Huddersfield fan pundit Nick Barlow air concerns about their potential Lee Grant appointment.

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 are preparing for another season in League One after something of a disastrous 2024/25 campaign, whereby the Terriers slipped fairly feebly into the middle-of-the-table.

Having been one of the pre-season title favourites following their relegation from the Championship, the Terriers were in contention for the top two for much of the season and even replenished their squad with some notable acquisitions in January, such as Ruben Roosken, Joe Taylor and Dion Charles.

However, after the sacking of Michael Duff in mid-March, caretaker boss Jon Worthington oversaw Town suffer six successive defeats to finish the campaign, meaning they had collected just nine points from their final 15 games of the season.

As they seek to rebuild and regroup ahead of the summer, they have been linked with several names, such as former boss David Wagner, and the most recent of which has been Lee Grant.

Huddersfield Town keen on Lee Grant, but appointment may be too much of a risk

Grant, who made 511 appearances as a goalkeeper during his career before finishing up at Manchester United for four seasons, has been first-team coach at Ipswich Town since May 2022, helping former United assistant coach Kieran McKenna.

Whilst an intriguing appointment given the success that the Tractor Boys have had in that time with back-to-back promotions, FLW’s Huddersfield fan pundit Nick Barlow has warned against the potential arrival of the 42-year-old.

Nick said: “I think these kinds of appointments either go one way or the other. They are either a surprise and teams don’t know what they’re playing against, certainly in the first-half of the season.

“It’s quite hard to prepare, and they can do quite well. They might bring an exciting brand of football and gets the fans on side and everyone engaged, and we’ve had a couple of them in the past.

“It can go the other way, though, and I kind of think a club in our position - we’ve no Director of Football, we have about 19 players available at the moment, the club’s in disarray. As soon as we face any adversity, we go into meltdown and the players just shrink into themselves.

“Personally, we need experience. I think we need someone who knows what they’re doing. Someone that is experienced in League One football and knows how to get out of the league, knows how to get into the players when their heads are dropping and shake things up.

“Is Lee Grant going to do that? I don’t know. It’s not an exciting appointment.

“Bringing a manager like Lee Grant in, who is completely unproven. I don’t think it’s going to get more season tickets sold so, personally, I think it’s a huge risk.

"It might pay off. We’re all going to get behind him if it is him but, personally, I would go for someone with more experience.”

The state of Huddersfield Town is not a positive one right now - a uniting appointment is needed in the dugout

Huddersfield ended the season in miserable fashion when a top two hunt was still firmly on the cards before their outright collapse in the second-half of the campaign, despite the investment from the winter transfer window.

Grant, who played 145 times for Huddersfield’s Yorkshire rivals Sheffield Wednesday during his 20-year professional career, would appear a risky but potentially exciting appointment after the tenure of Duff, who was often criticised for his style of football at the John Smith’s Stadium.

Huddersfield would still appear to have a strong squad on paper, but they do have several players departing this summer with the loans of West Ham United’s Callum Marshall, as well as Wolverhampton Wanderers trio Nigel Lonwijk, Joe Hodge and Tawanda Chirewa coming to an end alongside ten players with first-team appearances being released such as Jonathan Hogg, Danny Ward, Tom Lees, Matty Pearson, Ollie Turton, Josh Ruffels and Josh Koroma.

There is a lot of work to do for Huddersfield this summer and supporters do not appear to be enthused or encouraged by the goings-on at the club, with a warning now sent in regard to the potential appointment of Grant.