Lee Grant is promising Huddersfield Town supporters a team they are excited to watch after landing his first job as manager.
The former Stoke City player of the year, aged 42, has been building his reputation as a coach at Ipswich Town as they worked their way up from League One to the Premier League under Kieran McKenna, who Grant got to know while they were both with Manchester United.
He was a goalkeeper, spending most of his career with Sheffield Wednesday, Burnley and Derby County, but he has been a striker coach at a team that has mostly been free-scoring – getting 101 goals in 2022/23 and 92 in 2023/24 before finding life tough in the top flight this time around, although Liam Delap will make the club a tidy profit.
Grant said: “First and foremost, it’s an incredible honour to be manager of Huddersfield Town. This is an exciting time to be joining the club and there is so much potential and opportunity for us going forward, and I couldn’t be more motivated to play my part in that journey.
“I’d like to thank chairman Kevin Nagle and chief executive Jake Edwards for giving me their trust, and I hope to repay that with time as we head into the summer and season ahead.
“I have a clear idea of what I want my Town team to look like and how I want us to play. My priority is to not only win, but give our amazing supporters a side that they’re proud to represent them and excited to watch.
“Our goals and ambitions are clear, and there is much hard work that needs to take place in order to put us in a position to succeed. That process begins today.”
Huddersfield have had a Stoke connection in the last year or so but the last few weeks has seen the exits of sporting director Mark Cartwright and coaches Andy Quy and Kevin Russell.
They have just stuttered to a 10th place finish in League One in their first season after relegation from the Championship, losing their last six games and 12 of the last 15. They had been handily placed in fourth in mid-January and were still fifth, looking like a safe bet for the play-offs by mid-February.
Nagle said: “Each time I have met with Lee and discussed the club, he has presented detailed ideas, been passionate about the way he has described his way of playing football and shown a desire to succeed and take on this opportunity that propelled him beyond other candidates.
