Clubs circling in race to sign winger from Terriers, says Cowley
bit going into the window: after scoring 12 goals in his first 22 appearances of the season, he has at time of writing now gone seven straight games without finding the net. He had not previously gone more than two games without a goal.
Having missed just ten Championship minutes to that point, Grant was taken off midway through Town’s 2-1 defeat to Barnsley on 11th January after a poor first-half performance, with manager Danny Cowley saying the decision was tactical.
Rumours that West Brom were interested in signing Grant emerged shortly thereafter, with word coming out of Birmingham that the promotion contenders were weighing up a bid.
He would later say: “There is lots of speculation in transfer windows. Karlan is a young player, a good kid, it’s never easy for players in this moment, when there is a lot of speculation. “Players now, at all levels, are private limited companies, have a lot of entourage around them, a lot of people advising them - sometimes those people advise in the right way, sometimes in the wrong way.
“For us, this is normal, we have regular conversations with all of our players - Karlan included - to try and give them clarity, to try and understand
There have been no offers in writing as we speak and we’re pleased about that
where their thought space is and we try to work with them.”
Cowley also revealed that various niggles and injuries had prevented Grant from training in the weeks around the turn of the new year, leaving him short on fitness.
Grant’s strike partner Fraizer Campbell is ten years his senior and knows what it is like to have speculation swirling around you.
His advice to Grant was as follows: “The only thing that matters is what you are doing on the football pitch. The rest of it, let your advisors or your agent or the manager deal with that and get on with playing your football.
“Karlan is great. He scores goals, he takes pressure off me and I like him a lot. He is a young lad, he’s got talent, he can score a goal, he can pull the team out of trouble when we are in a bit of a sticky situation and it’s always good to have that type of player in your dressing room. The longer he stays, the better for me personally. But I realise everyone has their own goals and ambitions and we will see what happens.”
With one week of the window still to go Cowley said: “There have been no offers in writing as we speak and we’re pleased about that for sure because we wouldn’t want to lose Karlan, because we all know what he’s capable of and what he brings to this team.
“I’ve been encouraging the chairman to turn his phone off and shut his email down!”
On whether he was confident of retaining Grant’s services, Cowley said: “Yes, very much so. From the conversations we’ve had it will be on our terms as a football club and I think that is important, because it’s a very important time for us as a club.
“We have a big challenge in front of us and we need everybody fully committed and working hard for the cause.”
TOWN manager Danny Cowley has confirmed that a number of clubs have shown an interest in signing winger Isaac Mbenza before the January transfer window closes next week.
Mbenza spent last season at the John Smith’s Stadium on loan, most memorably scoring the equaliser in the 1-1 draw with Manchester United in Town’s final Premier League home game and joined the club for a reported £11m on 1st July.
But the winger has not featured for Town’s first team since 1st October and last month Cowley made clear that Mbenza would be available in the January transfer market.
Reece Brown, Terence Kongolo and Adama Diakhaby have already left the club on loan deals this January, leaving Mbenza and fellow summer signing Herbert Bockhorn as the two remaining transfer-listed players.
Cowley said: “I think there’s been some good interest for Isaac.
“Like with any transfer or loan there’s always three parties: two clubs and the player involved.
“There’s been a lot of interest, some from Belgium, some from France and also from other areas of the world.
“Isaac is available for either permanent transfer or for loan and he is weighing up his options.
“We’re helping him and supporting him as well as we can in this situation to try and get this right for him because Isaac is a boy who loves playing football, wants to play football and needs to play football.
“If we can find the right club for him to allow him to do then I think everyone then benefits.
“That’s the objective we’d like to achieve and we’re all working together.
“We have regular conversations with Isaac and his people to try and make that happen.
“He probably wasn’t playing too much before we arrived and hasn’t played too much since we arrived so he has been short of football.
“But there’s no doubt Isaac has talent, he has real pace, he has good one-v-one moments and some really excellent end product.
“For whatever reason it hasn’t worked, the move hasn’t worked and sometimes that happens in football, especially when you bring boys from another culture into this culture.
“That doesn’t mean he’s not a good player, that doesn’t mean he’s not going to be able to go into another club and go well.
“We hope Terence Kongolo and Reece Brown and Adama Diakhaby go into a different club and show the qualities they all have.”