‘Hungry’ Kian is out to make an impression
NEW head coach Carlos Corberan will be at the forefront of Huddersfield Town building a squad to compete in the Championship next season.
The 37-year-old Spaniard plans to work with a squad of 30 as the club introduce a B Team rather than Elite Development side to press for senior recognition.
Chairman Phil Hodgkinson wants a fresh approach and Corberan, he believes, has the talent to instil an attacking style at the same time as developing the club’s own talent - thus cutting down on loans and keeping the budget within check.
Already out on loan are Scott High and Kit Elliott - who were team-mates at Concord Rangers last season - to gain first-team experience with Shrewsbury and Cork City respectively.
The last of the club’s loaned-out players to return is teenage striker Kian Harratt, who does so with a National League play-off final winners’ medal around his neck from Harrogate Town’s elevation into the EFL.
Harratt, 18, is Town’s Academy Player of the Year and this coming season will be a crucial one for the Barnsley-based player.
So will he be loaned out again, or will he be retained to try and add to his one Championship appearance so far?
The man to ask is Town academy manager Emyr Humphreys.
“The next step for Kian will be to spend some time around the club,” said Humphreys. “Over the last six months he has spent quite a lot of time away from the club with Harrogate.
“It’s been an unbelievable experience for him with getting to Wembley, even though I know he will be annoyed not to have got on in the play-off final.
“But even to be around that was great experience and now he has had a look at that dressing room (at Harrogate), with a different manager and first team, the next step for him will be to spend more time close to our building.”
Humphreys added Harratt mirrors many of the qualities of High.
“They are very similar in terms of their enthusiasm for training,” he said. “They are just relentless in their attitude and a dream for the staff to work with.
“We are really just trying to nudge them along and point them in the right direction.
“Kian is just so hungry to train, he is desperate to score all the time and he’s just an absolute dream to work with to be honest.”
Harratt, who is tipped for a bright future at Town, netted one goal in seven appearances for Harrogate and re-signed for them at the beginning of last month so that he could be involved in the play-offs.
A clever finisher and prolific in Town’s age-group teams, he joined Town’s Under-17s in the summer of 2018 and made an immediate impact with the Academy, netting 32 goals in just 37 appearances.
He regularly trained with Danny Cowley’s first-team squad last term and made his debut at home to Leeds last December.
Harratt is contracted with Town until the end of this coming season, when he will be looking to impress under new head coach Corberan from the first day of pre-season on Monday.