Huddersfield Town v Peterborough United: Marcus Harness on quiet leadership, Lee Grant and the Republic of Ireland

It remains to be seen if Huddersfield Town attacking midfielder Marcus Harness has read the memoirs of one of the game’s most outstanding managers in recent times, but the tome’s name certainly sums up his approach.

Ahead of the new season at Town, the summer arrival was among a quintet of players named in the club’s leadership group.

Some are more vocal than others, but that number is balanced out by more reserved individuals, who lead by example as opposed to words; a conscious decision by manager Lee Grant.

Chief among them is Harness, set to register a personal milestone on Saturday by way of his 400th career appearance.

He told The Yorkshire Post: "I’m a bit of a quiet guy, I always have been.

"I am not the loudest guy and a ‘barking orders’ type of person. But I want to help, especially the younger lads, in my own way. “Hopefully I can do that for the betterment of the whole group."

Harness’s influences are numerous, including some who barked out the orders but did it from a good place at the club where he made his name in Burton Albion, who visit Town later this month.

Most notably former Brewers boss Nigel Clough, who displayed tough love to Harness in his years as a young professional which he will always be grateful for.

He added: "Definitely. Now that I am older, I appreciate that more.

"It was difficult at times as a young lad, getting barked at. You meet a lot of people in football and you take the good and learn from the bad that you see sometimes as well.

"One who I think (as another good influence) is Jake Buxton, he was a really good captain. I worked with him last year at Derby as well.

"There’s a lot of stuff I’ve seen in him and other people which I have tried to be more of. It’s a bit of a work in progress."

His current manager is someone who is a cool, clam and collected figure in the main in Grant, who Harness knew all about from their successful time at Ipswich Town.

Their stint in League One ended in a magnificent promotion and silverware in 2022-23. A re-run would be just the ticket and Harness spies similarities between both clubs.

Harness continued: "With the amount of investment that has been put in to the stadium and squad, I can definitely see some similarities.

"It’s a really good place to come into work. With that comes external pressure, but all we can do is concentrate on doing our jobs every day to the best of our abilities and the rest will land where it lands. We hope we will land where we want to and I’m sure we won’t be far off.

"The manager is a pretty calm guy and there’s not many times when I have seen him lose it.

"He holds everyone to a high standard and will tell you how it is and tries to do right by people."

Called up once by Republic of Ireland in late 2020, time is running out for Harness to tick off another milestone by way of an international cap.

He is philosophical over the prospects of doing just that.

Harness, who turns 30 in February, said: “It was five years and only for someone who was injured. So, it wasn’t like I was straight in there.

"I don’t know.. We’ll see. I am not too worried about it. You never know; I am not 30 yet, there’s still time.

"But I am not thinking about it too much and am definitely concentrating more on what is going on here more than anything else."