Huddersfield Town sporting director Chris Markham on why patience is tough but very important

Since Kevin Nagle bought the club in the summer of 2023, nine different people have picked the team with not even their job titles consistent. Some have been managers, some head coaches, some interims and Drury and Jon Stead even acted as joint interim head coaches at the back end of last season.

It has not worked. The Terriers were relegated from the Championship two years ago, and one of the biggest third-tier budgets could not get them into the 2025-26 play-offs.

Markham and new head coach Drury have both stressed the need for stability and patience, but history shows they are rare when the going gets tough at the club.

"It is really tough," said Markham, when asked how hard it will be to keep his nerve and perspective when results are poor and fans unhappy.

"If you take the last seven games of last season (with Drury and Stead in charge), I think there was only one really bad performance and I think we all know which one that was (Mansfield Town at home), and maybe the first half of another game.

"But even in the games where we weren't on top all the time, we'd shown a level of intent that the performance behind it was at the level we needed to be.

"So I think it's trying to take away that emotional side and that's the difficult bit because we are all so emotional and passionate about it. But if we want to do that and have a bit of consistency in that, even if results aren't tracking in the right way."

Having worked at the club at the time, Markham is able to point to the club's most successful manager of recent times as an example.

"The David Wagner season when he first took over was a really good example," he argued. "You could tell the performances were different.

"The results weren't all that different but there was still a different feel. You can tell if you're in the right direction.

"Obviously if we keep losing game after game, that's totally different but one-off blips and bumps in the road, as long as we can see the direction of travel is what we want, that's when it gives you faith that you might be able to be a bit stronger in different moments."

Wagner was appointed in November 2015 to a side 19th in the Championship and lost four of his first six games. They finished in the same position they were when he took over, but won the play-offs the following year, setting up two Premier League seasons.

With just two wins when they were hoping to secure a play-off place, Drury and Stead's interim period with Liam Manning on compassionate leave was hardly a roaring success in terms of results.

But Markham saw something worth persevering with, and when Manning decided to take a permanent step back, former Bradford City manager Drury was put in charge, with former Terriers striker Stead as his assistant.