Dembele signs: What Huddersfield Town’s dream end to the transfer window should look like | OneFootball

Huddersfield Town would have a dream end to the window with the signing of Siriki Dembele and a trimming of the squad.

Huddersfield Town have already had a busy summer transfer window, as the Terriers seek to return to the Championship after a disappointing 2024/25 season.

They were one of the pre-season title favourites and kept themselves in the hunt until mid-way through the campaign, before a collapse in the second-half of the season saw manager Michael Duff sacked in mid-March as they slid towards mid-table obscurity.

Huddersfield have since opted for the risky but ambitious appointment of rookie coach Lee Grant, who had been a part of Kieran McKenna’s coaching staff at Ipswich Town, and he has been backed with plenty of new signings.

In goal, they have added Owen Goodman on loan from Crystal Palace, whilst five centre-backs have joined in Jack Whatmough, Sean Roughan, Joe Low, Josh Feeney and Murray Wallace. They have also added versatile full-back Lynden Gooch.

Further forward, Town have brought in midfielder Ryan Ledson alongside winger Marcus Harness on free transfers, with Marcus McGuane signing from Oxford United and Leo Castledine joining on loan from Chelsea.

The marquee addition has been, and will likely remain, the signing of Birmingham City striker Alfie May for a fee believed to be in the region of £1.2 million.

The focus for the rest of the window will be on ensuring they can shrink their currently fairly bloated squad, but there is still room for improvement in one key area of the squad, which we take a look at here:

In: Siriki Dembele

Aside from the signings of Harness and May, and Castledine to an extent, the attacking area of the pitch has been neglected over the summer for Town, and that is reasonably so.

They have built a squad with an excellent foundation and platform, adding in key experience, whilst also ensuring there is still a youthful energy to their defence and midfield.

In January, they spent reasonably heavily on the signings of Joe Taylor and Dion Charles from Luton Town and Bolton Wanderers respectively, but neither have hit the heights expected of them.

Just because they aren’t performing doesn’t mean the financial outlay wasn’t there and Huddersfield have to contend with that, but it shouldn’t mean they are averse from adding in attack.

One area of the pitch where they are perhaps lighter than elsewhere would be out-wide, and adding extra pace to an experienced squad of know-how and technical quality wouldn’t go amiss.

Siriki Dembele is an ambitious player who may well turn his nose up at dropping into League One, but he is also someone who could do with restoring his reputation and getting more regular first-team minutes.

The former Peterborough United and AFC Bournemouth forward joined Oxford United last season for a relatively hefty fee, but struggled for fluency and form with the U’s.

He was left out of Oxford’s starting eleven at the weekend as they were beaten 1-0 by Portsmouth on the opening day of the Championship campaign, coming on to play the final 21 minutes of that game. He did feature in the EFL Cup midweek, though.

It would be an ambitious signing, but Huddersfield’s summer has been a litany of statements of intent, and Dembele would represent another as they seek to add added pace, versatility and dynamism to the final third.

Out: Bojan Radulovic

The signings of Charles, Taylor and May mean that Huddersfield now have six first-team strikers on their books to go with Bojan Radulovic, Rhys Healey and Freddie Ladapo.

None of those three have featured in Huddersfield’s opening couple of League One squads, and it seems unlikely that, despite their previously high price tags, at least for Radulovic and Healey, they can break their way into the team.

With Healey, there is mitigation of injury. With Ladapo, the opportunity to work with Grant could help him once again, but for Radulovic, the writing has been on the wall for a while.

Radulovic spent the second-half of last season out on loan at Fortuna Sittard, and he has scored just two goals in 28 league appearances for Huddersfield since joining from HJK Helsinki.

The Spain-born former Serbia youth international has been a major flop and the club must surely be keen to see him depart this summer.

Out: Antony Evans

As well as that trio of attackers, there are other players in the squad who the club must surely be seeking to ship out before the end of the transfer window, such as Antony Evans, who joined from Bristol Rovers last year.

Their midfield depth now consists of Ledson and Herbie Kane, as well as Ben Wiles and Marcus McGuane, with Castledine and David Kasumu seemingly on the periphery for the time being. There is little room for Evans.

Huddersfield could do with a bit of extra pace and a different profile of player in attack, but they have to ensure that their squad is trimmed for a variety of reasons in the final few weeks of the window.