Alignment key for Danny Cowley if Huddersfield Town are to achieve top-30 status

It might seem a slightly odd ambition, but to consistently be one of the top 30 clubs in English football in a competitive and sustainable way is part of the Terriers’ mission statement.

The thinking of chairman Phil Hodgkinson is that the Championship’s top 10 clubs start each season with a realistic chance of finishing in the play-offs, and from that securing a place in the 20-team Premier League.

To achieve that, Huddersfield are trying to lay foundations off as well as one the field.

Cowley took over as manager in September following on from Hodgkinson’s summer appointment as chairman, and there has been another burst of changes at the start of this year.

As well as revamping the squad with seven players signed in January and eight let go, alterations have been planned for the support structure, with Leigh Bromby due to step up from academy manager to head of football operations when Dave Webb leaves in the summer, and Emyr Humphreys promoted to replace Bromby.

“These are club decisions so a lot of them get made at club level,” explained Cowley.

“Ultimately we’re a trading club so the recruitment department and the academy become very, very important to the football club because you want to develop your own players, then when you bring players in you want to make sure you bring the right players in, then it’s our job to get the best value from them.”

Before Cowley’s arrival, Huddersfield were quite radical in how they rethought their academy set-up.

They took the decision to recategorise it from a category two academy under the Elite Player Performance Plan to the lower category four to allow them to focus more on the older age groups.

One success this season has been Lewis O’Brien, a versatile 21-year-old midfielder from Colchester who joined under the previous, traditional, academy structure. He started in the club’s under-11s and spent last season on loan at Bradford City, where he made his professional debut.

In terms of the number of staff as well as everything else, Huddersfield are by far the biggest club Concord Rangers, Braintree Town and Lincoln City manager Cowley has worked for. One of his favourite buzzwords is alignment, and he sees linking the various departments as crucial to the success of the first team.

“There’s a model that can work but we do need to be completely aligned in everything that we do and the decisions we make,” he stressed.

“It’s an ongoing process and if we can get to where we want to be and to our (his and assistant and brother Nicky’s) vision for the club and the club’s vision for the club, that will put us in a position where we can be sustainable and competitive again in this division.

“The club’s ambition is to try to be a top-30 club in the country. That means you’re a top-10 Championship club and you get a raffle ticket for the Premier League prize.

“If you can consistently be a top-10 (Championship) club, you’re going to be in and around the play-offs and for the club that would be a good place to be.

“As a management team and a support staff, we’re all cogs in the wheel and it’s our job a to add value.

“We want to try to get to a point where we’re getting the very best young players in the building through the academy, developing them, and in terms of our recruitment make sure we get the best players available to us.

“If we can do that, we’re confident we can add value to those players but it’s a process.

“There’s been lots of change at the club this year and it’s about trying to get an aligned vision.

“Once you’ve got that, it’s about trying to put the processes in place.”

Huddersfield, who were relegated from the Premier League last season and made an awful start to the current campaign which cost Jan Siewert his job, went into the coronavirus-enforced break 18th in the Championship, or 38th overall, with nine matches to improve their standing if circumstances allow.

“We’re a million miles away still from where we want to be,” admitted Cowley. “We’re still a work in progress, for sure.

At least it feels as though things are again starting to move in the right direction again.