Huddersfield play the Neil Warnock trump card and he may save them from relegation… for now

Neil Warnock has signed up for a firefight with Championship strugglers Huddersfield. It’s a desperate appointment that may pay off…in the short term.

Thirty years ago, Neil Warnock became Huddersfield Town’s manager. He has gone on to enjoy a remarkable career in coaching which includes eight separate promotions.

Having already come out of retirement a couple of times, he is now getting back on the horse at the age of 74 and he is tasked with putting a stop to Huddersfield’s freefall down to League One.

The Terriers were hampered in the summer as Carlos Corberan left the club, having guided them to the final of the Championship play-offs in 2021/22.

The club’s board opted to promote from within as they replaced him with Danny Schofield, who was taking on his first managerial job.

The 42-year-old was given very little time to make an impact. He managed just one win in nine games before he was sacked and replaced by another managerial virgin in Mark Fotheringham.

The Scotsman did at least have a fair amount of experience as a coach in Germany with FC Ingolstadt and Hertha Berlin.

Fotheringham was a bit of a punt. A kind of left-field appointment that could have made Huddersfield’s hierarchy look astute had it paid off. But it is perhaps one they were foolish to make given their troublesome form in the second tier.

The Terriers were 23rd when he took over in September. Five wins in 21 games later, they are 22nd in the Championship and Fotheringham was sacked with the club in no better place than they were when Schofield was dismissed.

From taking two risks, Huddersfield have done a full U-turn on any potential long-term plan as Warnock has been appointed until the end of the season.

It’s an appointment which reeks of desperation, but may well save Huddersfield… for this season at least.

Warnock knows the Championship like the back of his hand and while he is renowned for his ability to get teams promoted, one of his biggest successes as a manager came as he saved Rotherham from relegation in 2015/16.

The Millers were going through a similar process to Huddersfield, as the imperious Steve Evans was replaced with the inexperienced ex-Leeds United coach Neil Redfearn before Warnock arrived.

Warnock worked wonders that season to keep Rotherham up after they looked all set for relegation under his predecessors and you would be foolish to write off the same feat at Huddersfield.

Back in 2015/16, Warnock shored Rotherham up defensively in his opening weeks before an 11-game unbeaten run carried them to safety.

A similar unbeaten stretch would be difficult to recreate at Huddersfield, but he will at the very least make sure that they are more tough to beat.

He will also benefit from Huddersfield – at least on paper – having a far stronger squad than the one he had at Rotherham.

The Terriers certainly did overachieve last season to end up in the play-off places, but it was still a solid squad for this level. While Lewis O’Brien and Harry Toffolo were certainly big losses in the summer, these two exits should not have seen Huddersfield slump all the way to battling relegation.

Warnock simply has a profound love for management and when an opportunity like this arises, he often cannot help himself from saying yes – once he’s got the OK from his wife Sharon, of course.

Now, he’s unsurprisingly relishing the challenge ahead of him.

“I’m coming back to help the club, but also Dean Hoyle,” he said upon his appointment. “I know what he has done behind the scenes and I’ve always had a lot of time for him.

“I’ve looked at the fixtures and we’ve got some fantastic games to come. I want to come back and put smiles on faces!”

Speaking as a Rotherham supporter, rivals would have likely let out an audible gulp upon hearing that Warnock is taking the reigns at Huddersfield.

As a team fighting to avoid relegation, the last thing you want to see is Warnock taking over at one of your rivals.

It would be sensational if Warnock can pull off one final salvage job before he calls it a day *again*. The cynics against this appointment could argue that this a role too far for him.

You look at Roy Hodgson and Sam Allardyce who have suffered similar fates in recent times, while Mick McCarthy is struggling to prevent the Blackpool ship from sinking.

It could be the case that Huddersfield’s squad do not take to Warnock’s old-school antics, but any players not on board will be swiftly moved to the sidelines. He wants fighters and Huddersfield’s supporters need their players to be all-in to make this work.

Huddersfield being at a point where they feel forced into bringing Warnock out of retirement to save them from relegation with a 16-game sprint to the finish highlights their systematic failures.

They dropped on a gem with Corberan, who now has West Brom on the right tracks following the mess that was Steve Bruce’s time in charge.

But since then they have made two bold but unsuccessful appointments with Schofield and Fotheringham; they have now opted to play the Championship trump card to draft in Warnock.

He is a manager who will muck in and find a way to get results in the time he is given. This may well be enough to save Huddersfield from relegation, but it will not save them from woes down the road.

The veteran’s potential heroics will hide the club’s failures for now but it is worth remembering that the season after he saved Rotherham, he moved on and they were relegated without much of a fight.

The joy Warnock can bring in the short term does not mean that Huddersfield will be over the hill come the summer.

There are more hard roads to go down once Warnock is back to his quiet life with his wife Sharon down in Cornwall. Until he’s tempted back for another ‘last dance’ down the line.