Huddersfield Town’s £2m transfer has backfired – Permanent Terriers exit is likely | OneFootball

Rhys Healey is surely heading towards a permanent exit at Huddersfield Town after a disappointing start to his loan at Barrow.

Huddersfield Town have embarked upon a very busy summer transfer window, and there is a lot of pressure on manager Lee Grant to ensure some players work out this season and they get promoted, because the money wasted in the past will catch up with the Terriers.

Prior to the takeover of the club by American businessman Kevin Nagle, one of those failed big money signings was Rhys Healey, who joined Huddersfield for a fee believed to be in the region of £2 million from Watford.

The 30-year-old striker has endured a miserable time of it at the Accu Stadium, notching just four goals in 20 league appearances since his move in the January transfer window of 2024.

Healey moved to Cardiff City in 2013 from fellow Welsh outfit Connah’s Quay Nomads, where he had shown real promise, but his time at the Bluebirds never worked out, with several loans at Colchester United, Dundee, Newport County and Torquay United in there; dropping down the divisions.

That was until he found form at Milton Keynes Dons and moved there permanently, playing well and eventually securing a surprise move to Toulouse, in Ligue 2 at the time.

In Ligue 2, Healey was extremely effective, scoring 40 goals in 77 appearances across all competitions in two seasons for Les Violets, prior to his return to England with a move to Watford.

He struggled at Watford and soon found himself shipped to Huddersfield for quite a hefty sum, with that stint in France the main reason for any sort of substantial move.

Aside from two seasons in France, Healey had never shown much hope of being a £2 million striker and, sadly for Huddersfield, that has proven to be the case with his career in West Yorkshire now surely fizzling out to a premature permanent departure.

Huddersfield Town's Rhys Healey is yet to get going at Barrow

Soccer Football - League One - Rotherham United v Milton Keynes Dons - AESSEAL New York Stadium, Rotherham, Britain - February 29, 2020 MK Dons' Rhys Healey celebrates scoring their first goal Action Images/Ed Sykes EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or "live" services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. Please

Credit: Healey previously played in the EFL for MK Dons, among others.

Over the summer, the one-time Ligue 2 hitman joined League Two side Barrow on a season-long loan deal from Huddersfield, looking to find a spark and reignite his career.

However, it has been a nightmare opening month for the forward, with Barrow struggling and his game time majorly limited by a frustrating hamstring injury.

He joined the Cumbrians after two games of the League Two season, but was left as an unused substitute as they defeated Notts County by two goals to one at Holker Street.

A few days later, Healey made his Barrow debut, coming off the bench in a 1-0 defeat to Harrogate Town at Wetherby Road. He managed just 16 minutes in Harrogate, failing to impact the game.

Before Barrow’s next match, it was confirmed that Healey had suffered a hamstring injury with no timeframe given on his return, and he has not featured since with no suggestion or update on when he will.

There is still a long way to go for Healey, but given just how ridiculously poorly his move to Huddersfield has been, he needed to hit the ground running at Barrow to stand a chance of any sort of future.

Instead, it is becoming increasingly likely that Healey will simply have to depart Huddersfield on a permanent deal to eventually rediscover any sort of form, with his contract at Town expiring next summer and the prospect of renewal surely non-existent.

You have, of course, got to feel somewhat for Healey, who possesses clear goalscoring ability and joined Huddersfield to much fanfare with his exploits over in France firmly in mind, but wretched injury luck has plagued him throughout his career.

Rhys Healey has no future at Huddersfield Town

The amount of money wasted by Huddersfield is not exclusively limited to Healey, with an array of strikers having massively underwhelmed since their move to the club.

Another player who joined before the Nagle era, they also brought in Bojan Radulovic for an undisclosed fee from HJK Helsinki, and he spent the second-half of last season out on loan at Fortuna Sittard, with it clear that Grant is also not keen on the Spain-born former Serbia youth international.

Then, in League One, the lack of trust in the quality of Healey was shown even further by the quick-fire big money signings of Joe Taylor and Dion Charles, joining for £3 million from Luton Town and £750,000 from Bolton Wanderers respectively in January 2025.

Lee Grant’s preferred shape is a 4-2-3-1 and so the lack of forwards is an issue for a lot of Huddersfield attackers, especially after the addition of Alfie May for £1.2 million from Birmingham City this summer.

The amount of money wasted, without much brought in by way of sales, is fairly humiliating and a genuine worry for Huddersfield, with pressure on Grant to ensure second-tier football comes this year.

Healey seems to have no future whatsoever at Huddersfield, and a brilliant loan stint at Barrow was perhaps his final chance to have any sort of contract extension; but a permanent exit now surely beckons, and that means a financial hit for Huddersfield.