Huddersfield Town told off-pitch issue must be fixed - 'does the blame stop at Kevin Nagle?' | OneFootball

FLW's Huddersfield Town fan pundit has named the biggest issue at the club off the pitch

Huddersfield Town are in their second season in League One after suffering relegation in 2024.

The Terriers will be keen to return to the Championship as quickly as possible, but a 10th place finish in the previous campaign consigned them to another year in the third tier.

The Yorkshire outfit are currently in the mix for a play-off place under Liam Manning, but there are still plenty of games remaining to determine the top six.

Huddersfield are competing with the likes of Wycombe Wanderers and Reading in the table, with the team under pressure to improve their results in order to maintain their hopes of promotion.

Manning took charge in January, replacing Lee Grant in the dugout, and he has previous experience in League One from his time at MK Dons and Oxford United.

He has also worked in the Championship with Bristol City and Norwich City, helping the Robins earn a sixth place finish in the table last season.

Huddersfield Town’s issues behind the scenes

When asked what is the biggest off-pitch issue at the club, FLW’s Huddersfield fan pundit Graeme Rayner claimed that greater transparency is needed regarding the structure of the boardroom, and their responsibilities.

He believes that supporters should know who is really making the key decisions behind the scenes, whether it is owner Kevin Nagle or if it is the executives Chris Markham or Joe Edwards.

“I think that a lot of the discontent around the club’s fanbase stems from perhaps feeling a bit of disillusionment or confusion about the structure at the higher levels of the club,” Rayner told Football League World.

“So we have an owner, Kevin Nagle, who is based in Sacramento, who has quite willingly put a decent amount of money into the club, both on and off the pitch, since he’s been here.

“And we’re now on our second director of football since he’s been here, so we had Mark Cartwright and now we have Chris Markham, and also we’ve got Jake Edwards, who is kind of the CEO.

“And I think that part of the challenge that fans have is almost knowing, understanding who is responsible for what and where to direct their praise and/or criticism.

“Now that’s maybe a bit of an entitled view from fans, but I genuinely sometimes think that does the blame stop at Kevin Nagle at the very top, if things aren’t going well, and does all the praise go to him, or do we look at the people that are the level below him?

“Or is it just the manager when things aren’t going well on the pitch? And all of that.”

Rayner has claimed that supporters need to know who is driving the decisions behind the scenes, whether it is who to direct their ire at or who they can praise when things go well, citing the recent issues with season tickets as an example.

“And that hasn’t been helped by the fact that the club has disparate structures in terms of who owns the stadium, who is responsible for various parts of things and all of that,” he added.

“That’s probably quite a granular level of detail, but I genuinely think if there was maybe a sense of a holistic understanding of where everything is in the club structure, what’s going on, what the long-term strategy is both on and off the pitch.

“And there is a lot of that but it feels a bit disjointed.

“When you add all that into the mix the suggestion of putting up season ticket prices for the second season running isn’t going down well with people, even though it seems like it’s probably going to be a modest price increase.

“Last season it was big, it caused a lot of controversy and grumbling among fans.

“This year’s one is probably going to be around the rate of inflation, if not slightly lower, and actually that’s realistic and fine.

“But I think when you combine it with everything that’s gone on, people think where’s the value for money.

“So I think all of that together, and it’s hard to crystalise it into one view, just means that it’s not great.”

Huddersfield appointed Manning in January with the team’s hopes of earning a play-off place fading.

The 40-year-old enjoyed a strong stint in charge at Bristol City, which culminated in a top six finish in the Championship last year.

However, his move to Norwich in the summer failed spectacularly, and he left Carrow Road with the club in danger of relegation to League One.

He will now be hoping to rebuild his reputation with the Yorkshire outfit by guiding them to promotion back to the second division.

Huddersfield Town structure is letting the club down

Huddersfield haven’t all been pulling in the same direction under Nagle, and the team has gone backwards as a result.

The club have cycled through managers in the last couple of years, with the appointment of Manning just the latest example, and it’s been detrimental to the squad.

It’s understandable that supporters could be frustrated with where the side is headed at the moment, as the Terriers should have been competing further up the table last season, as well as this year.

Manning could prove a smart appointment in the long-run, but it’s hard to feel too good about the process that led to his arrival so far given what happened with Grant.