Next Huddersfield Manager Odds: Could Paul Heckingbottom save the Terriers?

Paul Heckingbottom is the favourite for the Huddersfield job after Darren Moore’s dismissal – but, if he got the job, could he keep the club in the Championship?

EFL pundit Gab Sutton discusses…

Huddersfield’s relegation struggles in 2023-24 are down to a toxic concoction of problems.

Since Dean Hoyle left in 2019, Terriers fans have grown further apart from the club, particularly under Phil Hodgkinson’s stewardship.

In fact, when Hodgkinson’s businesses collapsed in 2022, Hoyle was reinstated as chairman as a temporary measure, before selling his shares to Sacramento Republic.

Hoyle, though, wasn’t able to give to the club what he did previously, and the sense of togetherness that had been fostered in the mid-to-late 2010s had waned, partly due to the ticket pricing under Hodgkinson.

Hoyle turned to a familiar face in Neil Warnock, who led the club to promotion from the Second Division in 1994-95, and agreed to come out of his media and touring commitments to return to management.

Warnock galvanised the fanbase, lifted the West Yorkshire club, and oversaw seven wins in his final 15 games in charge to keep them up.

The wily campaigner should have been a quick fix, and should have left after completing the mission, because for a 74-year-old to come in for 15 games, motivate the players, unite the fans, and use his experience to steer them to safety, is a very different proposition to overseeing a more substantial rebuild.

However, the less than ideal timing of the takeover led by Kevin Nagle forced the club to go with what they perceived as the safe option – the person who’d just kept them up.

With just two signings before the opening day, it was no surprise that the form from the back-end of last season didn’t quite continue into 2023-24, and Warnock walked after eight points from the first seven.

It wasn’t an awful start by any means, but the change of manager in September, rather than the summer, made the job much harder for Warnock’s replacement.

With that in mind, combined with the various injury issues, it was always likely to be a difficult assignment for Darren Moore.

And, with improved results from late-December, coinciding with key returns from injury like Jack Rudoni, as well as a strong January recruitment drive, Moore may feel unfortunate to have lost his job.

However, the shift to a more possession-based style hasn’t got the best out of what he has available, and the board haven’t seen enough in terms of the quality of coaching to suggest he’s the right person, both to keep the club up and be part of the longer-term ambitions.

Paul Heckingbottom is the favourite to replace Moore, having achieved success elsewhere in Yorkshire, Leeds aside.

The former defender led Barnsley to a double in 2015-16, as they won the Football League Trophy and promotion from League One via the Play-Offs, before steering them to a midtable Championship finish on a low budget the following year, then left for Elland Road early in the following campaign.

Sheffield United, Heckingbottom steered to the Championship Play-Offs in 2021-22 after a bad start under Slavisa Jokanovic, before leading the Blades to automatic promotion the following season.

It would be harsh to judge Hecky on his side’s Premier League fortunes, too, seeing as the club cashed in on key men Sander Berge and, especially, Illiman Ndiaye without replacing either sufficiently.

Plus, the core that had been on the club’s journey through the Chris Wilder era were all on the decline, so the 46-year-old was on something of a hiding to nothing in a season all about banking TV revenue to try and secure the club’s long-term future.

Heckingbottom has proven to be a good Championship manager, and somebody Huddersfield can rely on to utilize the winter recruits to help them get over the line, as well as give themselves some optimism of what can be achieved in future campaigns.

He’s somebody who has a sense of humour whilst also being able to command authority in a dressing room, and has a sharp, agile mind.

Michael Duff would also be an excellent pick for the Terriers, after working wonders at Cheltenham and Barnsley, before finding himself in the wrong fit at a club obsessed with possession in a way Town aren’t.

Other potential next Huddersfield managers

Former Birmingham bosses John Eustace and Gary Rowett would be solid picks, the former having worked wonders at St Andrews this season before being shafted by the board, like the latter was six years ago, having subsequently led low-budgeted Millwall into consistent Play-Off contention.

Nathan Jones has proven himself to be an excellent manager in the right context, but the other side of his fiery drive is an abrasive personality that can rub some people up the wrong way, and a tendency to command the spotlight which may not chime so well in a fundamentally socialist town.

John Mousinho is unproven, albeit doing a fantastic job at Portsmouth, while neither Gareth Ainsworth nor Wayne Rooney would seem like wise picks after their respective struggles in this league with QPR and Birmingham, and Steve Cotterill is unrealistic.