Wagner’s bow marks Town’s year of change
IT’S a year since David Wagner left Huddersfield Town. And what a year it’s been!
There have been significant changes throughout the club, the most recent being the appointment of interim chief executive Mark Devlin to replace Julian Winter on the board.
Since Wagner
Town have played 45 matches, winning just eight, drawing nine and losing 28.
It’s a sequence which resulted in the club being relegated from the Premier League and being plunged into another relegation battle in the Championship.
Seven of those wins have come under new manager Danny Cowley, who was appointed following the sacking of Jan Siewert.
The German was appointed to succeed Wagner after a short caretaker spell for first-team coach Mark Hudson.
left,
So what have the changes been since Wagner left the building?
AFTER over a decade of capable stewardship as sole owner and chairman, Dean Hoyle sold 75 per cent of his shares in the club to fellow local businessman Phil Hodgkinson, whose takeover was approved by the EFL in July.
A change of ownership is a massive deal at any club, but was particularly keenly felt at Town, where Hoyle has been a beloved figure since becoming chairman in 2008. Hodgkinson has endured a rocky start to his time as chairman, receiving a lot of (in our view undeserved) criticism over the last few months that led him to appear on popular fan podcast And He Takes That Chance to set the record straight on a number of negative rumours.
There have been significant changes throughout the club
since Wagner left
DAVID Wagner left the club in midJanuary, and while Town fans will be forever grateful to the German for taking the club into the Premier League, the majority felt like it was the right time for a change. Wagner is now at German side Schalke.
His successor, Jan Siewert, was unable to turn the club’s Premier League form around and carried those poor performances into the new Championship season, necessitating another change just seven months after he took the post.
A second Mark Hudson caretaker spell is now over with the appointment of Danny Cowley, who has taken the role of manager, rather than head coach, and brought improved results – although more improvement is needed as he reshapes the squad in this January transfer window.
CHRISTOPH Beuler was Wagner’s right-hand man when 2019 rolled around, but left the dugout alongside Wagner, who he now sits beside at Schalke.
Andreas Winkler came in as Jan Siewert’s assistant but lasted just five months before being replaced by Colin Bell in June, with Siewert feeling that things just weren’t working out with his fellow German.
However, Cowley’s arrival as manager meant that his brother Nicky has now taken up the post of assistant manager.
SPORTING director Olaf Rebbe left the club just a few days after Wagner, after just a few months in the job, and after over half a year without a replacement, the club appointed head of football operations David Webb.
The former Southampton, Bournemouth and Tottenham man arrived with an impressive CV, and has already earned plenty of kudos for his successful selection and appointment of the Cowleys – the very first job he took on at the club.