Huddersfield Town urged to wait for "new regime" before making Joe Taylor judgments | OneFootball

Huddersfield Town need to be patient with £3m January signing Joe Taylor

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...

It is without doubt Joe Taylor has had a turbulent start to life in West Yorkshire since joining Huddersfield Town for a fee of £3m from Luton Town in January.

The 22-year-old has appeared fourteen times for The Terriers, yet only found himself on the scoresheet twice - with the first of those coming on his debut.

However, turbulent can be used to describe how the League One season has gone for Huddersfield Town as a collective.

Sitting nine points outside the playoff places ahead of the final day, 10th-placed Town have to settle for another year in the third division, failing to secure promotion back to the Championship at the first time of asking.

Interim manager Jon Worthington has seen his side lose five in a row, including a 3-0 away defeat to newly-confirmed survivalists Burton Albion in early April. This run of form indicates signs to hang-fire on making any final judgments regarding Taylor.

Patience needed after Joe Taylor's first few months at Huddersfield Town

FLW's Huddersfield Town fan pundit, Graeme Rayner, explains Taylor himself can't solely be blamed for how his first few months as a Town striker has gone, and makes a similar admission to fellow January arrival and strike partner, Dion Charles.

"Joe Taylor has been indifferent since he arrived, obviously he started really well scoring early on, but he's had injury issues and I don't think he was fit when he was arrived," Graeme said.

"Even if he had been fit and firing, he's come in having not played an awful lot of football this season, and shouldn't be judged by what he's been able to achieve in a team that has across the board been playing so poorly.

"He's had very little service, and we're not making very good chances, clear-cut chances.

"So I'm prepared to say for both him and Dion Charles, should see how they get on under a new regime next season."

Joe Taylor has shown glimpses of the star striker he can be

Contracted until 2029, time is on the Welshman's side to make the desired impact of firing Town back to the Championship and beyond, and he has the credibility to do so.

In the 2023/24 season, unbeknownst to then-Championship strugglers Huddersfield Town, Taylor first spent time on loan at Colchester United in League Two, netting 11 times in 25 starts.

After impressing at the club, he was recalled by Luton Town to swap Essex for Lincoln, and spent the second half of the season with Lincoln City in League One, scoring ten in 19 games.

Scoring 21 league goals in total, shared between two completely different environments, is what inspired Town to spend heavily to get his signature in the first place.

The man who signed him, Michael Duff, is long gone from the picture - and with Worthington out of favour as an interim, hopefully a new environment will be formed to give Taylor a fresh start in the summer.