THIS time last week I was writing about Mark Lillis taking charge as caretaker, now we’ve got my old friend Simon Grayson at the helm.
And it’s a great appointment for this club.
I played alongside Simon at Sheffield Wednesday for a while and, strangely enough, we went on our first coaching course together.
Neither of us had done anything at that stage towards getting our badges and we thought we’d better get cracking.
Both of us signed up for a week-long coaching course over at Barnsley.
I remember it well because I hated it – that’s why I’ve never had any interest in going into that side of the game – but Simon took to it really well and has created a good reputation for himself in the game.
He got his first chance in management while he was still a player at Blackpool and, to be fair, he has never looked back.
Over his time at Bloomfield Road he put a good side together and they won promotion. Then he went to Leeds and did exactly the same.
He was also unlucky not to get Leeds into the play-offs last season, when they finished seventh in the Championship, just three points behind Nottingham Forest.
So while he hasn’t been a manager for all that long, he has two promotions from this division to his credit already and his credentials to take this club forward are excellent.
I’m sure he’ll do exactly that over the next few years and I don’t want to hear anyone talking about the Town-Leeds rivalry. Simon is a Leeds lad and makes no bones about it, but he is here as Huddersfield Town manager and no-one on the planet will be more determined than him to bring success to the club.
It’s great to have rivalry between clubs, but in these circumstances the Town-Leeds thing is rubbish.
We should welcome Simon and his coaches – Glynn Snodin and Ian Miller – with open arms and back them all to the hilt.
Beating Exeter on Saturday was the ideal start for them all and there is no rest whatsoever with tomorrow night’s match down at Stevenage.
I’m sure that’s what Simon would have wanted. He has had a week to get to know everyone on the training ground and then a couple of games straight up will tell him a lot about the squad at his disposal.
IT’S all to play for now as far as our squad members are concerned.
There’s not just the remaining 15 matches of the season – starting at Stevenage tomorrow night.
But there is also a chance for everyone in the squad to impress new manager Simon Grayson and maybe book themselves a place in his matchday thinking.
I watched a bit of training last week and all the lads seemed to be buzzing.
It’s only natural they should want to impress the new man in charge and respond to the new ideas which any new boss brings to a club.
The one thing certain in football is that you are going to get changes of manager and, for the players, it is vital they just get on with the job and continue to do their very best for the club.
Professionals understand that’s the case, and those who have been out of the reckoning under Lee Clark will realise this is their opportunity to make a fresh start.
One thing which hasn’t changed for anyone – for chairman Dean Hoyle, the staff, the players and the fans – is that our overriding goal this season is to win promotion to the Championship.
We still have a fantastic opportunity to achieve that, whether it be through earning a place in the automatic positions or going up through the play-offs.
As I said last week, though, it’s up to the players to make it happen and they will be given every encouragement by the new gaffer and his staff.
It was interesting to see how Simon set up the team on Saturday and he won’t waste any time in developing his ideas on how best to use the playing talent we’ve got at the club.
