England - 2019-20 Championship (formerly the 18-19 EPL)

[God is an Englishman]

I know I avoid this thread now due to us ebing far too good for this division (hopefully I can say that again next season) but Lee Clarke sacked

You have 6 point buffer , should be safe.

[ExtraTime]

Lee Clarke next Leeds Manager ????

but how is that ... sitting fourth and sacked...

Swanny no comment when i message you last night as it happened

[swannsong]

Lee Clarke next Leeds Manager ????

but how is that ... sitting fourth and sacked...

Swanny no comment when i message you last night as it happened

I'm a Huddersfield supporter, not a Huddefield board member or press officer
My thoughts would be that Lee has indicated to the Club that his future was not with them.
Maybe Lee told the board that he wants to take up another position and won't be with the club next season.
An ex-Town player Mark Lillis will take over the Manager role for the time being.
Heard it wasn't just Lee Clarke, but also his coaching team...including Terry McDermott.

[God is an Englishman]

11 May 2011: "Most chairmen and football clubs like continuity. It's what we want at Huddersfield Town. We have had too many managers down the years. I spoke with Lee a few weeks ago and he said he would like to stay at the club. We would also like him to stay" - Huddersfield chairman Dean Hoyle gives his backing to boss Lee Clark.
4 Nov 2011, after fending off interest from Leicester in Clark: "In this day and age, it is rare to see a manager nail his colours to the mast like Lee has with Huddersfield Town and I am certain all our supporters appreciate that. As a club, we are delighted, though to be honest I always believed Lee's loyalty was with us. He is a good man, and has had great backing – not just from me but from the fans as well" - more support from Hoyle.
21 November 2011: "If I was a player, I would want to play for Lee Clark" - Hoyle rams home the point during the club's 43-game unbeaten league run.
Today: "This was a very difficult decision; one not taken lightly or in response to one result. Concerns have been raised over recent weeks" - after three defeats in 55 matches, Hoyle confirms Clark's sacking.

[God is an Englishman]

Swanny no comment when i message you last night as it happened

Too busy ordering pizza!

[swannsong]

I too am perplexed :?
Also perplexed why a manager would change goalkeeper who had played in most of Huddersfield's 43 game unbeaten streak and the more recent 9 game unbeated streak ?

Lee Clark 'shocked and perplexed' after his sacking by Huddersfield
• Clark dismissed along with his backroom team
• 39-year-old missed out in two League One play-off finals


Lee Clark has declared himself "extremely disappointed and shocked" after being sacked as Huddersfield Town's manager. Friction between Clark and elements of the League One club's board are thought to be at the root of his dismissal on Wednesday.
Bookmakers immediately installed Clark as the favourite to take over at Leeds United, where he has been prominent in the thoughts of the chairman, Ken Bates.
Although the 39-year-old is understood to be keen on the vacant position at Elland Road and could now end up there on the grounds of instant, compensation-free availability, the matters are not thought to be directly linked. Clark's last match in charge of Huddersfield was the 1-0 home loss to Sheffield United on Tuesday.
Clark said: "I am very perplexed as to why I was dismissed as the manager of Huddersfield Town. Needless to say I am extremely disappointed and shocked considering that, with just 16 games left, we are in a such great position to compete for automatic promotion."
Clark took over at Huddersfield in December 2008. Under his guidance, the club embarked on the longest unbeaten league run in their history – 43 matches – and were twice beaten in the League One play-offs, including the 2011 final. Huddersfield lie fourth in the table, four points from an automatic promotion place.
Dean Hoyle, the Huddersfield chairman, said: "This was a very difficult decision; one not taken lightly or in response to one result. Concerns have been raised over recent weeks.
"Lee and his coaching staff have put their all into the job over the past three seasons and he has made a huge contribution to the club.
"However with 16 matches to go we still have an opportunity to achieve promotion and we have made this change with this in mind."

[swannsong]

[God is an Englishman]

He made me laugh in the lead up to the 2010 play offs when he went on about Millwall not intimidating him. Suddenly people actually wanted to show him intimidation. He then turned up in his burton's suit and I got to watch him and his team bottle it. Laughing at the monkeys in their. Coaches going home while we celebrated going to wembley was priceless.

[swannsong]

Lee Clark can have no complaints after Huddersfield dismissal
By Michael Holden
Sport - Latest analysis on the Sporting world -
Thursday, 16 February 2012 at 12:49 pm

Lee Clark's dismissal came as a shock to most
If ever a managerial sacking could be used to illustrate the difference in mindset between an ordinary football fan and the seasoned football betting punter, it’s the departure of Lee Clark from Huddersfield yesterday.

On the face of it, the dismissal is a harsh one. Huddersfield have improved year or year since Clark was given the job four seasons ago, finishing in the play-offs for the past two campaigns and starting this one by completing an impressive 43-match unbeaten league run. The Terriers are currently fourth in the table with another top-six finish a near-certainty and they started this week’s defeat to Sheffield United just one point behind the second-placed Blades.

However, whereas there were many questions about the wisdom behind the timing of Mick McCarthy’s dismissal from Wolves earlier this week, there’s nothing knee-jerk about Clark being given the boot on the back of a 1-0 home defeat to Danny Wilson’s men. For quite a while now, punters have believed that something doesn’t quite add up with the hype that surrounds the Geordie.

The first rule when analysing clubs by their managers as a means for betting on football is that a manager should only be judged according to the resources at his disposal. Some ordinary folk understand this when they recognise a small club punching above their weight in a tough division but it’s a rule that applies equally to those at the top of the table and you shouldn’t always assume the size of a club’s budget by the historical connotations of the name.

Sometimes, even second place and automatic promotion behind a fallen giant in a league of 24 teams isn’t good enough when the right foundations are in place and the playing budget far exceeds what is available to everyone else. We can only speculate on what Clark was working with at the Galpharm but there’s compelling evidence to suggest his resources were far greater than what Gus Poyet worked with at Brighton last season, ditto Darren Ferguson at Peterborough, and it’s much the same story among the bigger names out-performing them this year.

Indeed, Clark was very spiky about the issue when I casually threw in an innocent question about the competitive balance in League One when I interviewed him the summer before last. In recent years, the clubs reported to have the biggest budgets have routinely occupied top six positions but my question wasn’t aimed at Huddersfield specifically, rather the disparity between top six and the rest. The unmistakable paranoia that filled Clark’s hostile response revealed rather more than I was anticipating from the session and suggested he was carrying a heavy load in more ways than one.

However, perhaps the most damning exhibit in the case against Clark is his own friendship with Huddersfield chairman Dean Hoyle. It’s well-known that the two men share a close bond and that their families regularly dine together, so it’s only fair to assume that Hoyle wouldn’t have sacked Clark unless something didn’t add up.

Nonetheless, the immediate response from the ordinary folk was one of general bewilderment when news of Clark’s dismissal broke yesterday afternoon – another case of a trigger-happy chairman and his unreasonable demands. What right have Huddersfield got to think they should be finishing above Charlton, Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday? They’ve all been in the Premier League, don’t you know.

As punters, of course, it’s our job to see through the smoke and mirrors of the conventional wisdom shaped by national media coverage and judge things in terms of rationality and probability, so it was no real surprise that my Twitter timeline was generally occupied by a frenzy of those crying injustice (ordinary folk and national media journalists) while the much calmer voices of reason were generally provided by most of my punting associates.

Even when removing the speculation that surrounds the finances, Clark has had a serious case to answer. It’s often said that a 20-goal-a-season striker is the difference between winning the league or coming up short, yet despite the fact that Jordan Rhodes has come of age so spectacularly this season, scoring 27 league goals with less than two-thirds of the campaign gone, it’s a sad fact that Huddersfield are once again bang on course to be the nearly men of League One.

[swannsong]

Huddersfield appoint Simon Grayson as new Manager....looks like a Manager swap with Lee Clark touted to go to Leeds..

Grayson gets the nod at Huddersfield as Terriers swoop for former Leeds boss.
By Sportsmail Reporter

Simon Grayson has been appointed the new manager of Huddersfield Town after signing a three-and-a-half-year deal.
Huddersfield have been searching for a new manager since the sacking of Lee Clark last week.
Talks were held between Grayson and Huddersfield over the weekend and the 42-year-old has agreed to take up the role at the Galpharm Stadium.



And Grayson admitted he was forced to take a hit in the pocket to take the Town job.
He told the Yorkshire Post: 'After receiving a call on Friday to say Huddersfield were interested, I then met the chairman on Sunday night and was immediately impressed by what he had to say.
'To be honest, I didn’t have much intention to come back into football as quickly and fancied some time off. But after speaking to Dean, I decided I wanted this job.
'So, I got in touch with Leeds as there were still a few things that needed sorting out before I could join another club. We came to an agreement as Leeds wanted it done and I just wanted to get on with the rest of my career.
'It meant I had to take a bit of a hit financially compared to what I was entitled. But I thought that was a price worth paying to take on a challenge that really excites me.'
Chairman Dean Hoyle is aware that not all supporters are happy about a former Leeds boss taking the reins.
He said: 'I am not ignorant to the fact that some supporters may question Simon’s appointment given his history at Leeds United but I will tackle that head on.
'It was all about getting the best man for the job and Simon ticks all the boxes. He has a history of success at this level with both Blackpool and Leeds, he has a point to prove following his departure from Leeds, and having met him on Sunday night I know he has the fire in his belly to lead Huddersfield Town into the Championship.'

[swannsong]

Sheffield derby this Sunday....hoping that the Owls defeat the Blades.
However, will mean very little if Huddersfield can't get 3 points off Exeter at Galpharm....

[Colossus's Attorney]

I hope the Blades win.

[ozzie owl]

Sheffield derby this Sunday....hoping that the Owls defeat the Blades.
However, will mean very little if Huddersfield can't get 3 points off Exeter at Galpharm....

Hoping Owls win as well.

[swannsong]

Sheffield derby this Sunday....hoping that the Owls defeat the Blades.
However, will mean very little if Huddersfield can't get 3 points off Exeter at Galpharm....

Hoping Owls win as well.

Huddersfield Town ( 2 ) Exeter City ( 0 )
A first up win for new Huddersfield manager Simon Grayson with goals from Jordan Rhodes and Jamie McCombe.

[Crue Héad]

I can't beleive we lost to Oldham.

[Wayne Rooney's Elbow]

Huddersfield appoint Simon Grayson as new Manager....

After being shafted by that leeds scum I hope he does well.

[swannsong]

Sheffield derby this Sunday....hoping that the Owls defeat the Blades.
However, will mean very little if Huddersfield can't get 3 points off Exeter at Galpharm....

Sheffield Wednesday ( 1 ) Sheffield United ( 0 )

Evens up the battle for second spot......Huddersfield ( 4th on 58pts.) are now 4 points behind Sheffield United ( 2nd. on 62pts) and have 2 games in hand over Wednesday (3rd. on 60pts.).

[Stairway to Heaven]

I can't beleive we lost to Oldham.

I can't believe it's not Bodø.

[ozzie owl]

Very happy with Owls win over the Blades in the Steel City Derby, think it might have saved Megson's job.

[swannsong]

I can't beleive we lost to Oldham.

I can't believe it's not Bodø.

It makes you wonder !!

[CameronBroadbent]

i agree with you.... it's wonder.....

[Ernie Cooksey]

I can't beleive we lost to Oldham.

Always tough at the ice station.

[swannsong]

Huddersfield Town squandered another two points after leading 0-2 against Stevenage...Stevenage pulled the score back to 1-2 and could have equalised...but Alex Smithies saved from a Stevenage penalty....with 2 minutes remaining Stevenage eventually equalised in front of a small (3,059 ) midweek crowd !

[Ctrl-Alt-Del]

A good win for Charlton against Bournemouth with a late winner as the Addicks march on to the Championship.
Huddersfield Town to change their name to Huddersfield Squanderers

[Crue Héad]

Screw Chesterfield.

[Wayne Rooney's Elbow]

A good win for Charlton against Bournemouth with a late winner as the Addicks march on to the Championship.
Huddersfield Town to change their name to Huddersfield Squanderers

Why did you change your original post?

[swannsong]

The word disappointing comes to mind !
Grayson. like Clark, hasn't yet figured out how to plug Huddersfield's second half leaky defense !

[Ernie Cooksey]

2-0 down at half time at Brammall Lane, and the good guys score 3 in the second to steal the biscuits. You fucking dancer.

[swannsong]

Some pleasing midweek results....apart from the Owls

[ozzie owl]

Good to see Owls back on track and win 4-1, even better as Blades lost.