£16k-a-week Huddersfield Town star's situation will surely surprise Birmingham City fans | OneFootball

Alfie May's terrific League One record hasn't seemed to translate to his time at Huddersfield Town so far

From 2021 to 2024, there wasn't anyone better at putting the ball in the back of the net at League One level than Alfie May, so much so that Birmingham City signed him for the sole purpose of achieving promotion.

The prolific frontman had averaged over a goal every other game for three seasons whilst at Cheltenham Town and then Charlton Athletic, bagging 66 in 128 games.

May's goalscoring form for sides who had finished in mid-table caught the eye of free-spending Birmingham in the summer of 2024, and in their pursuit of creating one of the most dominant, impressive League One sides the third tier has ever seen, Chris Davies made him one of his first signings during his tenure as manager.

Before Jay Stansfield's record-breaking £15 million arrival, May had scored in each of the first four games of the 2024/25 League One campaign and seemed well on his way to another 20-goal season, this time at St Andrew's.

In the end, he'd be in and out of the starting 11 and had to settle for just the 16 goals, but alongside eight assists, he ended up matching his goal involvement tally from the year before at Charlton, and exceeded the one in his final year at Cheltenham.

So, in the eyes of many Blues fans, all May needed to be was the main striker option once again to return to his goalscoring best. But his time at Huddersfield Town hasn't followed that trend.

Huddersfield Town put a lot of faith and money into Alfie May, but it's not working thus far

There have been a lot of question marks so far this season at the Accu Stadium about how and why Huddersfield haven't dominated League One due to the sheer amount of money that was invested into the squad.

Amongst all the former Championship players who made the drop to the third tier to play in West Yorkshire was one of the third tier's best in Alfie May, and the Terriers seemed to invest more into bringing him in than they had done into anyone else.

Football League World exclusively revealed that Huddersfield spent £1.2 million to bring in the 32-year-old, and according to Salary Sport's estimations, May's £16,000 per week contract is the highest among the entire Terriers side.

For someone who has such a positive track record of putting the ball in the back of the net in League One, the lofty figures were overlooked and deemed to be of value, but May's poor start to the campaign has put these into question.

Two goals and an assist in the opening five games, which saw Huddersfield take 12 points from a possible 15, was a positive start. But since then, both the team and May have struggled to click.

The Terriers have fallen out of the top six, and May's only found the back of the net once since that 1-0 win against Stevenage on August 23.

A red card against Wycombe Wanderers even saw the 31-year-old struggle to get back into the starting 11 altogether post-suspension, coming off the bench in four consecutive outings prior to being reinserted into the side against Wigan Athletic, where he was largely ineffective against one of the poorer away defences in the division.

He'd start again in the Terriers' trip to Rotherham United a week later, but contributed to none of the goals in a needed 3-1 win.

It's a rough patch of form that hasn't been associated with May in several years, and not one that anyone saw coming at the start of the season.

Alfie May's poor run of form has coincided with a Huddersfield Town slide down the League One table

Whilst it can be said that May's run of one goal in 14 League One outings can be incredibly concerning, it's no coincidence that Huddersfield's slump down the table has happened at the same time, which may be of even greater concern.

Since the Stevenage win, the Terriers have won just five of their subsequent 15 League One games and have lost seven of them.

Perhaps, once the team start performing to its potential, May will get more chances and consequently get the rub of the green more often and score more goals.

May still averages a shot on target every 90 minutes, and his expected goals are currently 1.31 higher than his actual output, according to Fotmob, so he's still getting himself into the right positions — the goals just aren't coming.

Huddersfield have been in a sticky patch for a few months now, and there was a lot of pressure on Lee Grant and his players to turn the ship around and return to being the side many expected to dominate this season.

A win in a Yorkshire derby against Rotherham could be the catalyst for doing just that, ahead of a period where Lee Grant's side plays four times in the space of 10 days. Eight to ten points out of the 12 on offer could be exactly what the doctor ordered, and could even see Huddersfield return to the top six.

If the Terriers can pull through and collect those points over the Christmas period, you'd expect that the prolific League One bagsman will have a say in some of the goals along the way, too.