Manager is keeping his ego well hidden for the League One play-off final against Sheffield United at Wembley
When it comes to pre-match speeches Simon Grayson is a creature of habit. "Have no regrets," are the words the Huddersfield Town manager invariably uses to conclude his team talks and that message will almost certainly resonate around a Wembley dressing room on Saturday .
If Huddersfield win the League One play-off final against Sheffield United and end an 11-year absence from English football's second tier many will interpret it as a vindication of Grayson's managerial qualities in the wake of his controversial sacking by Leeds in February. The former Leicester, Aston Villa and Blackburn right-back or midfielder sees things slightly differently. "What happened at Leeds doesn't really motivate me, there'll be no extra satisfaction if we get promoted," he says. "I've never been the sort to be motivated by personal glory."
Outside the Galpharm Stadium the temperature is, unusually for a west Yorkshire town on the edge of the Pennines, approaching 30C. Inside a windowless ground-floor media room it feels even warmer, but Grayson retains his cool, body-swerving invitations to discuss the news that bookmakers have made him the third favourite for the Villa vacancy before further emphasising that he is in possession of one of the best disguised egos in football.
Listening to him talk fluent commonsense, it is easy to understand why, as a youngster at Leeds and, later, a senior professional at Leicester, he swiftly established himself as a firm favourite of those clubs' managers at the time, Howard Wilkinson and Martin O'Neill.
"It's nice to have a promotion on your CV as it suggests you're doing your job properly, but this isn't about me, it's about Huddersfield Town," says the straight-batting 42-year-old, who grew up in Bedale, north Yorkshire with Leeds posters adorning his bedroom walls and a love of sport fostered by his PE teacher father. "This club has been in League One far too long; it needs to get into the Championship. My remit is to get them there."
Fortunately for Huddersfield's chairman, Dean Hoyle, a greetings card magnate, Grayson specialises in this particular promotion. After extricating Blackpool from League One via the play-offs in 2007, he took Leeds up automatically before achieving – or as he concedes, "overachieving" – a seventh-place Championship finish last season.
At the time of his dismissal, they were 10th, three points off a play-off place. "I don't look back with regret or negativity," he says. "I loved every minute."
Two weeks later, the brother of Paul, the former Yorkshire and Essex cricketer who played two one-day internationals for England, was back in employment, benefiting from Hoyle's contentious dismissal of Lee Clark, who had led Huddersfield to a 3-0 play-off final defeat against Peterborough last spring.
By a peculiar quirk of fate Grayson was at that match as a pundit for Sky. "Did the players turn up?" queries a manager dubbed "Larry" by friends. "Did the best players play? Or was it simply that Peterborough played better?
"I was in the studio so I don't know what went on in the dressing room or what the players' reaction was. But I do feel the experience will benefit them. They've maybe learned things about responsibility.
"Maybe some went in thinking, 'We'll win it and just have to turn up.' Or maybe some thought, 'They're only Peterborough.' Maybe some lost focus, that's why we've been making sure they know they'll only be remembered if they win at Wembley."
The Peterborough defeat marked the start of the painful unravelling of Clark's once-close relationship with Hoyle. "No one deserves promotion more than the chairman," says Grayson. "I want to reward him for the way he's backed this club."
Hoyle has reconnected Huddersfield to its local community. Last Wednesday he embarked on a charity bike ride to Wembley, raising £50,000 that will transport 1,000 underprivileged children to the final. They will be hoping to see Jordan Rhodes add to the 40 goals he has scored this season in what promises to be the striker's final game for Huddersfield. Fulham are reportedly poised to offer £3.5m. It will not be enough. "That's what you pay for a 10-15 goal a season striker," says Grayson. "Not someone who has scored 40."
Not that a man who left O'Neill distraught when he swapped Leicester for Villa intends keeping Rhodes against his will. "You've sometimes got to think about what the player wants," he says. "But it's a two-way thing, offers have got to be suitable."
A winning goal at Wembley would further boost the price tag: "Hopefully Jordan's got a couple more goals left in the locker. He's up there with the best strikers I've worked with, he's very composed, he'll get something out of nothing."
The 22-year-old is also refreshingly low maintenance. "Strikers are a strange breed, sometimes you can't work them out," says Grayson. "But, character-wise, Jordan is close to not being a striker. I can work him out.
"He wants to learn. People say he's no different as a person to this time last year; 40 goals haven't changed him. If he gets into the Premier League he won't think he's made it, he'll keep working and working."
Much the same could be said of Huddersfield's manager. Read More
انسخ الكود التالى و ضعه فى موقعك او مدونتك.
