Position at the club becomes untenable” – Huddersfield Town sent clear January transfer message.
This article is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk’ series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…
Huddersfield Town have been told to strengthen their striker department in the January transfer window, with pressure put on sporting director Mark Cartwright.
The Terriers have the likes of Rhys Healey, Bojan Radulovic, and Freddie Ladapo as striker options, but Radulovic and Ladapo haven’t been prolific in front of goal, while Healey has struggled with injury since his arrival from Watford.
Michael Duff’s side missed out on Alfie May in the summer when he opted for a move to League One rivals Birmingham City, while a loan deal for Luton Town’s Joe Taylor also fell through, so it looks like adding a striker or two will be a priority for Cartwright when the window opens.
Huddersfield Town January striker demands outlined
Huddersfield Town – John Smith’s Stadium
We asked our Huddersfield Town fan pundit, Graeme Rayner, what his biggest fear in the January transfer window is, and it’s clear that he believes signing at least one striker is of upmost importance.
Speaking to Football League World, Graeme said: “So my biggest fear regarding the January transfer window would be that we don’t end up with a stronger squad than we have now, specifically at the top end of the pitch.
“It has been no secret that Town fans have been dismayed at our attempts to find a quality, reliable striker over a number of windows now.
“Rewind a year, we brought in Rhys Healey and Bojan Radulovic, and Radulovic looks like he’s not going to click at the club. I’m sure he has some qualities that were attractive, and he looked like a potentially very good acquisition, but it’s not clicked for whatever reason, whether that’s the physicality of the English game or what, but it’s just not happening for him.
“Rhys Healey looked like a very good acquisition in every sense other than the amount of minutes we’re able to get out of him. He seems to be rather injury-prone, and that’s probably why he was made available to us. When he is fit he looks like a very good quality player, but we’re not going to get the benefits of that if he’s not playing. It feels like every time he gets close to playing he has a setback.
“My fear is we don’t bring in one or probably two strikers. After we brought in Bojan Radulovic in January and suffered relegation, we knew in the summer we needed to address that position and we suffered twice.
“Birmingham City gazumped us at the last minute with Alfie May and then Joe Taylor appeared to be all but done and then Luton pulled the plug because they couldn’t get anyone to backfill.
“If we reach February, and we haven’t addressed that position, then I fear that Mark Cartwright’s position at the club becomes untenable because fans are already baying for his blood because they’re presuming that we’re going to be left disappointed again because of the track record that he’s got.
“I think we need to get two strikers in and ship a few out. Freddie Ladapo we signed in the summer on a free, and he’s just not good enough.
“He’s nowhere near good enough and for the club to have told us that they were watching him all summer is a laughable claim, and they were either watching him all summer, which means that somebody is grossly incompetent, or they weren’t, and they’re telling us a fib.
“Neither of those are acceptable and if we don’t address that over January and do it successfully and probably early in the window, as there are seven games in January and 21 points to play for then I don’t think Mark Cartwright will be at the club next season, or he certainly shouldn’t be.”
Huddersfield Town should revisit a loan deal for Joe Taylor in January
