Hudderfield Town – Is There A Defence For Lack Of Signings?

July 1st, the day the transfer window opens and the day football fans really start to look forward to the new season again.

Your club is linked with every type of player you can think of: free transfer, pacey forward, a hot prospect on loan, and if you’re lucky, a club record signing. However for Huddersfield Town fans, it has been like watching everyone go on the roller coaster, but you’re not tall enough. Whilst every other club has featured in the speculation and rumour mills, Town have been surprisingly absent.

Fans must have been left disappointed early on if they were hoping for an exciting start to a summer of transfers. Manager Mark Robins stated mid-June that he would take a ‘methodical’ approach‘ in his search for fresh faces. Robins, who played for Man United as a youngster, has never seemed an excitable character during his time in the dugout. However even for his standards, this was a particularly unconvincing way to describe his teams approach to one of the fans’ most exciting times of the season.

Robins can be forgiven for not bringing in reinforcements up top, with James Vaughan returning to full fitness to partner club record signing Nahki Wells. However the lack of defensive arrivals will be a worry. The Terriers’ defence was one of the leakiest in the division last season, however they have so far only brought in two players for the first team squad, and only one of those is a defender. Utility player Lee Peltier, has returned to the club following permanent spells at Leicester and West Yorkshire rivals Leeds, while experienced Goalkeeper Joe Murphy has signed from Coventry.

Fans will hope Vaughan and Wells can fire for Town this season.
Fans will hope Vaughan and Wells can fire for Town this season.

The contracts of loyal skipper Peter Clarke and full back Callum Woods were not renewed at the end of last season, along with central midfielder Keith Southern, which left three gaps in the squad. While Peltier and Murphy are both useful additions to the squad, they don’t go too far in solving Town’s defensive frailties. Peltier can be seen as a replacement to either Woods, Clarke or Southern yes, but considering their defensive record last season, reinforcements are what fans would have been hoping to see, not replacements.

Despite boasting experience at this level, Anthony Gerrard and Joel Lynch they were far from convincing in defence at times last season when playing together and fans are surely crying out for somebody to come in and form a solid partnership with one of them. But so far this has failed to happen, which must be leaving Terriers fans scratching their head regarding how their squad problems have been addressed, if at all, come their opening fixture on 9th August.

Some positives can still be taken from their summer so far in that as the season begins, more teams will figure out which players are deemed surplus to requirements, and available for transfer before the window slams shut at the end of August. This will allow Robins and Director of Football Operations Ross Wilson to spread their ‘methodical’ wings and bring in more players to improve the squad.

The club have repeatedly stressed they are in constant dialogue regarding new signings, however with their big kick off against Bournemouth just two weeks away, fans will be hoping the club run up a rather large phone bill between now and then in an effort to bring in the signings required.

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