Huddersfield Town keeper Lee Nicholls on Michael Duff providing the stability that the League One club craves

Factor in interim appointments since he joined in May 2021 and the number is into double figures. And then there’s the goalkeeping coaches.

Many clubs in the EFL crave stability on the managerial front these days and Town can count themselves among that group. It’s a fairly sizeable one.

Despite recent evidence, the individual currently in situ at the John Smith’s Stadium in Michael Duff is a ‘builder.’

By his own admission, Duff arrived at Huddersfield on the back of a bad year/season.

He elected to leave Barnsley in the summer of 2023 - just 12 months into a three-year deal - to join Swansea.

After stating he was ‘all in’ at Oakwell, he jumped early. In hindsight, he is big enough to admit it was a mistake with the Swans not being a natural footballing ‘match’ for him.

Whereas Huddersfield are and possess the behind-the-scenes structure that he probably lacked at Barnsley in 2022-23.

It represents a proper chance to build for Duff, who spent 27 years of his life in football at just two professional clubs - Cheltenham and Burnley - prior to heading to South Yorkshire.

Solid, good professionals and players like Nicholls are entitled to hanker for order given what they have been through at Huddersfield.

Whisper it gently, but Duff might just be the person to provide that again.

Nicholls believes so and he has certainly invested into Duff’s brave new world. While there was some speculation suggesting he might leave in the summer, it was something that never particularly concerned him.

Now 31, Nicholls, named in the EFL and PFA Championship Team of the Season in his first campaign at the club in 2021-22, said: “It was never about me trying to leave. I just want to play football and I love this club and while I am here, I will give it my all.

"I think there was a lot of change ‘in season’ last season with so many managers, goalie coaches and coaches.

"But that’s football and sometimes, you do need to make a step back to go forward again and I think this club has got a real opportunity to do something good this season.”

Town may have had a ‘bad week’ by virtue of defeats in league and cup to Rotherham and Walsall, but the mood has lifted immeasurably since Duff’s arrival.

Now comes the hard part, getting consistency over the course of a long and demanding season with a different playing style based on possession.

On the change in mood, he said: “I think that has come from the gaffer. One of the first things that the gaffer said when he came in is that it’s a full reset and ‘I don’t care what has gone on beforehand’.

"It’s ‘start with a clean slate, show me what you can do on the training pitch.’

"It’s about us now maybe changing our mentality of being a really hard team to beat and making sure we are the team that is controlling games instead of maybe being the team who are fighting for points.”

The fruits of Town’s labours in an intense pre-season were there for all to see in the opening weeks of the campaign with the club making their best start to a league campaign since 1979-80.

Under Duff, Huddersfield look fit, organised and motivated once more, with a building block or two having already been laid.

Setbacks will occur, no doubt. Of which, Saturday’s reverse at Rotherham was definitely one.

Good, successful groups bounce back quickly. And when Town return to league business at Bolton on Saturday week, it will represent their first character examination.

A useful test, nevertheless and it will provide Duff with another glimpse as to what he has at his disposal in the dressing room.

In his previous time in management, Duff has thought ‘outside of the box’ to test players mentally and hopefully build their comradeship in the process.

At Cheltenham, his players worked with the Royal Marines Commandos for instance, while at Barnsley, he once took his squad to the National Coalmining Museum to give them an insight into the kind of supporters who they were representing each week.

A few slightly different bonding exercises also took place in the Austrian Alps among his current crop of players as well in pre-season.

Duff said: "We did a little bit out in Austria in getting players to stand up and talk about themselves, not about football.

"It’s getting players to stand up and talk about a hero, hardship and family and motivation.

"It’s difficult sometimes, because it's not comfortable. But you are finding out things about people you are spending a lot of time with and open them up from a human point of view."