"Laughable" - Huddersfield Town off-field process criticised | OneFootball

We asked our Huddersfield Town fan pundit whether he rated the work of the club's recruitment team

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's recruitment team has come in for criticism after a number of transfer windows which has seen players who aren't up to the required standard signed by the club.

Michael Duff's side are currently doing well in League One and sit comfortably in the play-off mix, but the Terriers are short of quality in key positions like striker, and a number of recruits have struggled to make an impact at the John Smith's Stadium.

With a crucial January transfer window just around the corner, our Huddersfield Town fan pundit believes the club's recruitment team are in the last chance saloon and will come under further pressure if they don't deliver.

We asked our Huddersfield Town fan pundit, Graeme Rayner, whether he rated the work of the club's recruitment team, and it's clear that he and other supporters are unhappy with some of their recent signings.

Speaking to Football League World, Graeme said: "I don’t know any Huddersfield Town fans who do rate our transfer recruitment team.

"On the whole, I think the players we have brought in across several windows now have not been good enough, or certainly haven’t been good enough quick enough.

"We go back to last summer, Ben Wiles came in and struggled, he’s only coming good now. Since then, players who have come in like Bojan Radulovic don't look good enough. Rhys Healey, when he does start to look good enough, gets injured again. Radinio Balker looks like he’s got loads of quality but struggles with fitness and then had a serious injury.

"Freddie Ladapo was brought in the summer, and he’s a laughable signing, most Town fans would agree. He now gets ironic cheers because of gallows humour in the crowd. These signings that we’ve made just genuinely aren’t good enough.

"Callum Marshall on loan, loads of potential but not the right player that we needed. We missed out on Alfie May, we missed out on Joe Taylor, we brought in Anthony Evans, and he suffers from injuries.

"Herbie Kane is alright, but I don’t necessarily think that was the recruitment team’s involvement, it’s got Michael Duff’s fingerprints all over it as he played under him before and has been successful with him before.

"The biggest success in the last three or four transfer windows is arguably a player who had very little to do with our recruitment team. I’m almost certain they were told ‘he’s out of contract so go and get him’ by Michael Duff.

"I think this window in January, they cannot afford to get it wrong. If they don’t get the players that we need, and if they aren’t a success pretty quickly in what’s a critical season for us, I don’t see how Mark Cartwright can continue in his role."

The January transfer window is crucial to Huddersfield Town's promotion hopes

Duff will be hoping for reinforcements in key positions when the transfer window opens, particularly at striker where they've struggled for a prolific goalscorer.

Despite the Terriers' positive position in the League One table, there's a lot of ill-feeling towards Sporting Director Mark Cartwright and the recruitment team, and they can't afford any more poor signings before supporters really start to turn.

The summer recruitment probably hasn't been good enough for a club that wants to challenge for promotion, and things need to improve in January.

As Graeme alluded to, this season is critical for Huddersfield as they look to make an immediate return to the Championship, and January is a month that they simply have to get right in the transfer market.