Huddersfield Town: What went wrong for Moore and who’s next?

And so the Darren Moore era (can it be called that after 23 games?) is over, after American owner and chairman of Huddersfield Town, Kevin M. Nagle, relieved the manager of his duties on Monday afternoon after just three wins in his time in charge. But what went wrong and who is up next? We asked our resident Terrier, Adam Roberts, to take a look...

Well, you can't say he wasn't warned!

The pre-match build-up before the disappointing 1-1 draw away to Queens Park Rangers on Sunday was dominated by chat about Nagle's open and honest social media posts, which had criticised Moore's style of play and formations and spoken of the game in west London as a must-win.

To be honest, the writing had been on the wall for the 49-year-old from this infamous x.com(Twitter) post on January 13th, following another 1-1 draw against fellow strugglers Plymouth Argyle.

Whether you agree with the American's unique brand of supporter engagement or not, it certainly made his position clear and though the performance at Loftus Road was a little better than of late, it still wasn't enough to secure the three points and ultimately signed Darren Moore's P45 as forecasted.

But let's rewind four-and-a-half months and see where the real issues may have begun...

After taking full ownership of the club, the Sacramento-based businessman made his first priority clear: sign on club legend and 2023 season saviour Neil Warnock for one more year. However, after a public spat in September regarding transfer activity and some criticism of early-season performances, the 74-year-old was sacked abruptly and in came the former Sheffield Wednesday boss.

Town fans were quite frankly stunned as to why they had let go one of the Championship's best-ever managers, who had united a poor squad and finally got them winning games, for a relative unknown in Moore, who had fallen across the promotion line with the Owls a division below.

A poor start for Moore and a relatively negative set-up did nothing to win over already-disgruntled fans, and some of his post-match interviews left a lot to be desired in entertainment and clarity of speech. However, as we all know, football is a results-based business and even Moore's staunchest fans (does he have any?) couldn't support his record of three wins, 11 draws and nine defeats in his 23 matches in charge of the West Yorkshire club.

The Terriers have been in and around the bottom four all season and badly need a new spark or playing style in order to change up their season's fortunes. Moore left in the midst of a relatively easy run of fixtures, but the new man, whoever it is, will face a baptism of fire when appointed, with Southampton, Sunderland, Hull City, Watford and bitter rivals Leeds United on the horizon.

A cursory glance at the forums and next manager odds seems to suggest Huddersfield fans are wanting either Will Still of Reims or the recently-sacked Steve Cooper, who infamously got one over the Terriers with his last club Nottingham Forest at Wembley in the Championship playoff final of 2022.

Both seem unrealistic to me and I'd be looking at some of the other names in the betting like Paul Heckingbottom, John Eustace or Nathan Jones, all of whom have had success at this level fairly recently.

But one thing will unite Town fans behind the new guy no matter what - It's not Darren Moore. Seemed like a lovely guy, but simply not up to the job.