It is a quirk of history that the season in which one of English football’s greatest managers, Brian Clough, won his first major trophy also heralded the start of the long and graceless fall of a club that had been home to two of the game’s other most inspiring leaders, Herbert Chapman and Bill Shankly. While Clough was celebrating turning Derby County into English champions in 1971-72, Huddersfield Town, the first club to win that title three years on the trot, finished bottom of the old First Division. They have been exiled from the top flight ever since.
But something else happened that season, an event the significance of which could not have been foreseen. In a small town south-east of Mainz, a child was born to an American father and a German mother. He grew up to become a footballer and then a manager, and now David Wagner could be about to guide Huddersfield back to where they once belonged. Let us not trumpet Wagner as a new Chapman or Shankly, especially after Friday’s thrashing at Bristol City, but we can certainly say that this manager has produced a thrilling team and aroused new hope in the West Yorkshire town.
Related: Championship’s Yorkshire revival gives football its northern soul back
Related: Managers suffer time deprivation in Championship that never sleeps | Ed Aarons
Continue reading...