Speaking on The Beautiful Game Podcast, Huddersfield Town defender Danny Simpson has revealed that he had the option to move to France and Turkey before joining the Terriers earlier this season.
33-year-old right-back Danny Simpson joined Huddersfield Town in September 2019, coming in to bolster Danny Cowley’s defensive ranks. He became a free agent at the end of his deal with Leicester City and prior to joining Huddersfield, he had interest from abroad.
Excluding a brief loan spell with Belgian side Royal Antwerp in 2006, Simpson has spent his entire career in England. When he became a free agent, Amiens of France showed interest as well as did clubs from Turkey. Now, he has revealed that he instead opted to jin Huddersfield because he didn’t want to move abroad.
Simpson has opened up on his situation last summer, saying:
“There comes a time when you have to have a chat with yourself and leave man like Ricardo (Pereira) to. I wanted it to be the Premier League, it wasn’t. But, I also had opportunities to go somewhere else but at the time I wanted to stay at home in Manchester.
“(Amiens) got spoken about, a lot of places like Turkey, and I just wasn’t ready to leave England at the time. I had my little girls in Manchester. There was a time when I nearly didn’t get signed. You go on so long when you’re a free agent and the right backs get taken up.
“Huddersfield was a different test, down the bottom of the league. I had a lot of friends there like Fraizer Campbell and I spoke to the manager, an up and coming manager, who wants to go as high up in the game as he can, and I think they (him and brother Nicky) will.”
Since joining Huddersfield, Simpson has played in 24 games across all competitions, holding down a place in Danny Cowley’s starting 11. His current deal expires at the end of the season and it is said that Huddersfield will not be looking to extend Simpson’s deal until their Championship status is confirmed.
