Accountability: Tackling the deep-rooted issue at the heart of Huddersfield Town

By Elliott Wheat-Bowen (@elliotthtafc)

Accountability noun /əˌkaʊn.təˈbɪl.ə.ti/ - the fact of being responsible for what you do and able to give a satisfactory reason for it, or the degree to which this happens.

Phil Hodgkinson, the name alone is enough to split the opinion of the former mill town of Huddersfield in half. Since his inauguration as chairman of Town, Hodgkinson has been, to say the least, a polarising figure. Taking over from Dean Hoyle, who presided over the (what is now short-lived) golden era of Town’s recent history meant Hodgkinson had big shoes to fill. However, as this saga unfolds - the size of those big shoes seems to drop a shoe size as every new revelation comes to life.

Whereas many may expect this to be a critique of Hodgkinson and his stewardship of the club, it is not. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. This piece looks at a long-standing problem that was present before Hodgkinson’s tenure began. Using the definition providing in the opening gambit, I am discussing the notion of accountability, or in the case of Town, the lack of.

Throughout Hodgkinson’s tenure, not every decision that he has made has been a bad one. It would be unfair and unreasonable to say the swift replacement of Jan Siewert with the Cowleys was a poor choice. The argument for the replacement of the Cowleys with Corberan has begun to wain with Town falling down the table like a devastating landslide. However, for the first few weeks of the season, before injuries plagued the squad and teams worked out how to play Town, the Corberan move also looked a good one.

However, this is where the problem lies. It doesn’t matter if the choices made are good or bad if there isn’t accountability for actions. Accountability is just as important to understand why a decision was successful, as it is to apportion blame and dissect a failure. Unfortunately, there appears to be a lack of accountability, internally at the football club, as it stands.

Whilst the monthly update is a step in the right direction in terms of communication, engagement, and inclusion of the fanbase. Perhaps an influence of new commercial director Ian Birtley openly discussed the significance of supporters and how he would use social media channels as a means of gauging public opinion, the omission of a means of response, reply or any form of feedback means that it remains a continual one-way conversation.

The reasoning behind this one-way channel of communication, echoed by fervent backers of the club, is that that the anti-club sentiment is so potent that any information provided will just be a stick used to beat the club with. However, it is unnerving and uncomfortable to think that the decision-making processes at this football club are not being scrutinised properly.

For some fans, they are of the opinion that this football club is merely a business and the operations and decision-making processes shouldn’t be of public concern. You could also make the argument that there is internal accountability, but again, it just isn’t made public. However, when the same mistakes are being made repeatedly and there are no apparent changes made to correct those issues or stop history from repeating itself, that is when questions are asked.

Without accountability coming internally, and the checks and balances seemingly not being there, it has to come externally. If the hard-hitting questions aren’t being asked through traditional channels, i.e., the media, then it has to come from the fanbase and those hard-hitting questions are being asked, but they are deflected or left unanswered. The tireless work of supporters’ associations and the ATT board can only go so far.

It should be said that the lack of transparency in the decision-making processes and the denial of culpability in terms of individual and collective responsibility is an issue that transcends Hodgkinson’s tenure. Take, for example, recruitment, we can all agree that the haphazard transfer activity or more recently inactivity has repeatedly undermined various managers. From the second season in the Premier League onwards, part of the demise on the pitch has been a perpetual failure in the transfer market.

And yet, there has been a culture of passing the blame of failures with regards to recruitment to people who are no longer at the club. We have all heard of the fabled transfer committee, but the vagueness of the structure and how it operates leads to an inability to pinpoint who should be held accountable for failings in recruitment, but also a fierce backlash amongst the fanbase potentially at an innocent party.

It is an issue that isn’t just apparent off the pitch, but it has trickled down and it’s visible on the pitch too. We cannot criticise the board nor the recruitment department and ignore Carlos Corberan, his coaching staff, and the squad itself. Repeated failure on the pitch since the turn of the year is not solely because the squad wasn’t further strengthened enough in the January transfer window.

We have seen a tactical inflexibility and an unwillingness to adapt by Corberan and without a squad that has the physical capabilities or technical ability to perform what he is asking; we are seeing the same mistakes being made on a weekly basis. Again, it has to be said, where is the accountability for these repeated mistakes?

Partly we have to look at Corberan and whilst his stubborn loyalty to his ‘philosophy’ is admirable and in line with the board’s call for a change in vision and approach, it is all naïve to expect Town’s fortunes to change on the pitch all of the sudden. That is also the point to be made, there has been a decry about the lack of leadership in the squad.

Yet, there are many leaders, particularly in the spine of the side. Frazier Campbell, Jonathan Hogg, and Richard Keogh alone have well over a thousand league games between them. Whilst the head coach may be inexperienced and raw, that is no excuse for a lack of accountability in the dressing room and on the pitch. Following Jaden Brown’s rash picking up of two yellow cards in the space of fifteen minutes in the defeat to Derby County, he was quick to come out and apologise for his actions and acknowledge the mistakes he had made. However, that open and honest admission felt a rarity and almost alien anomaly amongst the current climate of this football club.

There has been a call to arms for wholesale changes to be made, the most common being the replacement of personnel such as Devlin, Marsh, and Bromby. However, the wholesale changes need to be deeper rooted than yet another CEO, a different head scout, or director of football rolling into town. There needs to be a culture change where there are clear checks and balances in place. The easiest way to bring about accountability is by creating a clearer more transparent structure where it can be easily traced who is involved in what part of the decision-making process.

Until that comes about and the culture of passing the buck of failings to others who are no longer at the club ceases to exist, unfortunately, I think we will see the same mistakes being made repeatedly, with no real means of reversing the spiraling downwards trajectory that we could find ourselves in.