Huddersfield Town have appointed Martin Drury as their head coach after a three-week search that ended with the 40-year-old emerging as the club’s unanimous choice. Drury, who took charge on a caretaker basis after Liam Manning was granted compassionate leave, has now been handed the job permanently after leading Town through the final seven games of the season.
He won two of those seven matches as Huddersfield finished ninth in League One, enough to convince the club he could take them forward after a turbulent end to the campaign. Former Town striker Jon Stead will assist him. Chris Markham said the club had had the benefit of seeing Drury’s work for the last six months and praised his leadership in difficult circumstances, saying it was immediately clear why he has a reputation across football as an elite coach.
The appointment closes a short but unsettled chapter for Huddersfield, who announced earlier this month that Manning would not be returning to his role. Drury and Stead had taken over until the end of the campaign in March, and Drury had already been part of the staff since January, when he joined Manning’s backroom team. That familiarity mattered, but the club still ran a full process before making its decision.
Markham said the search was widened deliberately, even with Drury’s recent spell in charge fresh in the club’s mind. He said the club quickly decided it had to run a full process to identify the next head coach, then interviewed several candidates over the past three weeks before settling on Drury as the unanimous pick. The move makes him Huddersfield’s third different head coach in just under a year, a sign of how much instability the club has had to absorb while trying to reset on the field.
Drury’s route to the top job has been a long one. He started his coaching career with non-league Bradford Park Avenue and has also had spells at Bradford City, Manchester United, West Bromwich Albion, Valencia and Brentford. Huddersfield will now hope that breadth of experience, along with the evidence of the last six months, can bring some continuity after a season that never quite settled.
