Huddersfield Town will always regret £11m investment - Terriers could've avoided disaster | OneFootball

Isaac Mbenza proved to be a major transfer mishap for Huddersfield Town

Huddersfield Town currently find themselves in League One, with the club miles away from their recent predicament as a Premier League side.

Between 2017 and 2019, the Terriers became the latest of several Yorkshire sides to earn the prestige of competing amongst the elite of English football, with David Wagner completely transforming the culture and outlook at the Accu Stadium throughout his tenure.

Several players throughout this period of Town's history are still fondly remembered for their exploits which led to a promotion through the Championship play-offs against all the odds, before consolidating in the top-flight the following season despite immediately being tipped for relegation.

However, there are also instances where the West Yorkshire club got it massively wrong in the transfer market, with a handful of signings failing to live up to hefty price-tags in the Premier League and subsequently, during an initially underwhelming period back in the EFL after relegation under Jan Siewert.

Isaac Mbenza is one of the names who certainly falls into said category, having failed to live up to expectations during an initial loan stint, before Huddersfield, somewhat bizarrely, decided to invest a significant eight-figure fee into his services, and it was one they wouldn't recoup any funds from.

At the time of his loan switch to West Yorkshire, Mbenza was coming off the back of a very successful individual campaign with Ligue 1 outfit, Montpellier, who he had joined in January 2017 at the age of just 21.

In his first full season with the French side, Mbenza found the back of the net 10 times in 43 appearances across all competitions, eventually completing his temporary switch with an obligation to buy to Huddersfield in August 2018.

The winger would make his debut in a goalless draw against Cardiff City just weeks after joining the club, before it took a further seven games for Mbenza to record his first start for the Terriers.

Despite having the versatility to feature across the front-line, the Belgian youth international was unable to aid Town's well-documented goalscoring problems, as he ended the season with one goal and a solitary assist, with his only strike coming in a 1-1 draw against Manchester United in May 2019 after relegation had already been confirmed.

Despite only seeing the briefest of glimpses when it came to end product, Huddersfield's transfer blunder involving Mbenza only got worse after relegation, when they were forced to pay £11m for his signature on a permanent basis.

He would make just two starts in all competitions before being bombed out of the matchday squad altogether as Siewert was replaced by Danny Cowley, before joining Amiens on loan in 2020, where, yet again, next-to-no impact was made ahead of the suspension of the Ligue 1 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although it looked like there was no way back for Mbenza in West Yorkshire, he was reinstated as a regular under Carlos Corberan, although he admitted to having such feelings during initial conversations with the Spaniard.

"I sat down with him and we had a good chat and what he said to me sounded very encouraging. He told me I was a good player and would be very important to the team. Of course, that is what you want to hear but the last coach said exactly the same things to me and look what happened," he said.

"So you can’t always trust everything you are told. Trust has to be earned and, of course, now I realise what Carlos said, he really meant."

Although Huddersfield ended the season in 20th and just six points above the relegation zone, Mbenza was able to claw back some individual pride with five goals and seven assists in 36 league appearances.