Becoming Huddersfield Town's new coach was not a 'no-brainer' says Martin Drury as everyone takes their time
Anyone playing new manager bingo would have been disappointed by Martin Drury's first press conference as Huddersfield Town coach would have been disappointed – joining the club he supported as a boy was not a "no-brainer".
It is the stock phrase you normally hear when a new coach or player comes to a club but on both sides, the recruitment process to replace Liam Manning has been a deliberately thoughtful one.
Twenty-five days after the season ended, 16 after it was officially announced Liam Manning would not be returning from his compassionate leave, and a day after chairman Kevin Nagle had announced the process would be completed, it was finally confirmed caretaker Drury would be taking on the job full-time.
And if the Terriers took their time trying to make sue they got the recruitment process right, Drury had to drop his reluctance to be the face of the football club after a successful career working behind the scenes at some big clubs.
"I think a lot of people, when they get a job, they sit here and go it was a no-brainer when I was offered it," said Drury.
"Naturally, there was some scepticism from me because of the (turnover of managers in recent years).
"I'm not somebody who enjoys this, who enjoys the media side of things. That's why for many years I've always probably enjoyed more being a No 2 and supporting the head coach and leaving the head coach to deal with all this, dare I say, distraction from football, the thing that I love doing and coaching and working with players.
"Ultimately, you come to a stage in your career where you start thinking that some of your ideas that you have, you might have to override some of those feelings of not wanting to do this type of stuff to be able to apply the things that you believe in. That's something that I'm really excited about.
"I feel that I've been given that opportunity here at Huddersfield Town where my thoughts and feelings on football align very much with clubs."
Drury managed Bradford Park Avenue and took on the caretaker role at Bradford City, but beyond that he has worked in the academies at Manchester United and Bradford, was Carlos Corberan's assistant at West Bromwich Albion and Valenica, and on Keith Andrews' coaching staff at Premier League Brentford before moving back him to assist Manning in January.
"As everybody knows, I care deeply for this football club," said 40-year-old Drury. "I've enjoyed the time since coming in in January with Liam and the other staff. It had been a long time coming.
"I'd wanted to work at Huddersfield for many years, albeit my journey's been across the globe in terms of Spain, the Premier League and the Championship. But Huddersfield's always been somewhere that I've really wanted to work at. So, yeah, to be given that opportunity now, I feel excited.
"I feel optimistic about what can be done. I feel positive about the conversations that I've had with the football club around things Chris has just alluded to there and where the football club currently sits in terms of their mindset and thought process around short, medium and long-term thinking.
"I'm grateful to be a part of that, but also ambitious to get going and make sure that it's a success."
Asked about the delay to the appointment, sporting director Chris Markham explained there was nothing untoward behind it.
"It's a very important decision for the club and we knew that we had to take the time to get it right.
"We knew that Martin had put in a really good performance in the last seven games (of last season) and put a really good version of himself but we wanted to make sure that we'd left no stone unturned.
"Martin was the standout and the one unanimously between us all that we were delighted to get over the line. It just took a bit longer than we'd have liked.
"To be honest, on this occasion, Kevin had probably been a bit unlucky. Everything should have gone through on Tuesday. We actually were agreed on Friday, I think it was.
"There was a bank holiday, there's procedural things that we've got to do, boring football logistical stuff that can sometimes take longer than it probably should have.
"To be absolutely unequivocally clear, there was no second thoughts either side."