Martin Drury is Huddersfield Town's head coach after impressing with leadership
Martin Drury is the new permanent head coach of Huddersfield Town, and their first to be born in the town for nearly 40 years, after impressing with his "leadership" in a difficult end to last season.
Drury will be chairman Kevin Nagle's seventh "permanent" manager a months short of the American's third anniversary as chairman.
The 40-year-old impressed in a joint interim capacity when Liam Manning went on compassionate leave at the end of last season. Now Manning has decided he is unable to return to the job as he and his family continue to deal with the emotional fall-out from the 2024 death of his newborn son Theo, Nagle has decided to give Drury the job permanently, and in his own right.
Working alongside former Terriers striker Jon Stead, Drury won only two of his seven matches in charge as Huddersfield missed out on a place in the League One play-offs, but he is highly rated as a coach.
His previous management roles were in Bradford, in charge of Park Avenue and temporary charge of City.
But away from the top job, he was in charge of the Bantams' academy before being poached by Manchester United's academy in 2022. He then worked under former Huddersfield coach Carlos Corberan at West Bromwich Albion and Valencia before joining Keith Andrews' new backroom staff at Brentford last summer.
In January 2026, he followed Manning to Huddersfield.
Drury will work under sporting director Chris Markham, who led the process to find Manning's replacement.
Having been Drury's co-caretaker, Stead will take on the role of his assistant. New faces will be added to his coaching staff in due course.
The last Huddersfield-born man to take charge of the team was Steve Smith, from January 1986 to October 1987.
With style of play one of the issues behind Lee Grant's dismissal in January, that will be a high priority for the new man.
“As I have said since my return to the club as sporting director in November, we are focused on delivering a style of winning football that Town fans can get behind and enjoy," said Markham. "With our owner Kevin Nagle and chief operating officer David Threlfall-Sykes, we approached this appointment with a clear focus on identifying a head coach whose playing style, energy, and leadership aligned with the football identity we want to represent Huddersfield Town.
“We’ve had the benefit of seeing Martin’s work for the last six months. It was immediately clear why he has a reputation across football as an elite coach, but his leadership over the final seven games in difficult circumstances was impressive too.
“Even with this in mind, we quickly decided that we had to run a full process to identify our next head coach. Martin entered that process alongside other potentials with very different experiences and profiles and, having interviewed several – including Martin – over the past three weeks, he was the unanimous choice.
“We believe that Martin can be a successful head coach at Huddersfield Town based on the way he works and his alignment with us on what needs to be delivered for the club’s fans. We will ensure that Martin gets the support he needs to be successful, and that starts with Jon’s appointment as assistant.”