Huddersfield Town's remarkable fightback under "absolutely perfect" Neil Warnock
In case you missed the memo, it's officially comeback season in English football.
Roy Hodgson has been drafted back in to rescue Crystal Palace from the dreaded drop less than two years after parting company with the Londoners at the end of the 2020/21 campaign - but the Eagles chief isn't the only veteran in the dugout who is currently defying both the sands of time and the footballing gods.
When it comes to The EFL, Neil Warnock has pretty been there, done that and got the t-shirt: the 74-year-old is one of the most fabled figures in Football League history and had clocked up over 1600 games in management during a career which had spanned five decades and 16 clubs when he announced he was calling it a day after leaving Middlesbrough back in 2022.
Few people, though, really believed that Warnock was truly done for good - so it came as no surprise when he was lured out of retirement by Championship strugglers Huddersfield Town back in February.
Warnock knows all about the Terriers, who he guided to promotion back in the 1994/95 season, and, unsurprisingly, the Huddersfield squad knew all about their new manager, who has guided the likes of Sheffield United, Cardiff and Crystal Palace to promotion from the second-tier during his storied career.
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But Huddersfield midfielder Jack Rudoni, 21, admits that still didn't really have any inkling of what life would be like working with the veteran as the club fight to preserve their Championship status.
The Terriers were beaten play-off finalists last term but have floundered after losing the services of highly-rated head coach Carlos Corberan back in the summer. Danny Schofield lasted just nine games after stepping in to replace the Spaniard before Mark Fotheringham was drafted in from Germany in a bid to get Huddersfield firing again. But he too failed to improve the club's fortunes and was sent packing after 21 games with the Terriers mired in a relegation battle.
With confidence at an all-time low, a seasoned manager in the mould of Warnock, Rudoni believes, is exactly what Huddersfield needed to turn their season around. The Terriers midfielder tells Mirror Football: "I think for the situation we're in, he's absolutely perfect - we needed him.
"I'll be honest, I didn't really know what to expect when he came in. All of us have seen like the videos and stuff online and that's what everyone thinks, but he's been really relaxed about our situation.
"I wouldn't say he's been too relaxed, but one of the main things he's done for us is he's made us feel a lot calmer about where we are. We were all quite tense about the whole situation, but Neil's kept saying all along, 'We'll get out of it'."
Rudoni has been one of Huddersfield's key players under Warnock (John Early/Getty)There's still some way to go before that can become a reality, but already, Warnock's words are starting to ring true.
The Terriers were second-bottom when he arrived and well adrift of safety, but a six-match unbeaten run, which yielded a return of 11 points from a possible 18, was enough to lift Huddersfield out of the Championship relegation zone for the first time since August prior to Saturday's narrow 1-0 defeat at Swansea.
Despite that result, Huddersfield are still out of the drop zone and their destiny is in their own hands. From where the club were when Warnock arrived, that in itself is some feat. But how has he inspired such a turnaround?
"I don't know how to describe it," Rudoni adds. "He's just got a proper presence. He leads the room anytime he's in it and he's got all of us on side. We all love him and want to play for him. I don't know how he instills that confidence. Maybe it's the way he talks to you, the little things.
"You almost feel free when you play for him; you know what you need to defensively, but when we get into [the opposition's] half, he tells you to express yourself and enjoy your football. There's no restrictions, you can go out there and play without fear. He keeps morale up in the camp in a really good way, especially in this situation. Whether it's having a joke or a fun training session, he just makes a difference and he does it really, really well. I can't explain it."
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When he was on the books at Crystal Palace as a youngster, Rudoni had a bad experience with a coach before rediscovering his love for football at AFC Wimbledon, where he flourished under the guidance of former head coach Mark Robinson. Warnock, he admits, is unlike any coach he's ever worked with.
Warnock has given Huddersfield a fighting chance of survival (John Early/Getty)"He's a lot different to managers I've had before. Like I said, he just instills this level of confidence and belief that I haven't seen from a manager before. I'm loving every minute of playing for him and I think I'm really coming into my own.
"He's broken everything down and made everything a bit more simple so we can understand what we need to get from each game. As you can see from the points and how we've played, it's working. It's down to us now to keep that going until the end of the season."
Rudoni was snapped up by Huddersfield for a seven-figure sum in the summer after a breakthrough campaign in League One with the Dons. Playing across a variety of advanced roles, the youngster chalked up 12 goals and five assists in a young Wimbledon side that ultimately succumbed to relegation.
This year, though, Rudoni has had to refine his game after being asked, at times, to play in a deeper role. But that hasn't prevented him from adapting to life in the Championship seamlessly.
"I feel like I'm a player who is capable of performing in a lot of different positions," adds Rudoni, who has been at the heart of Huddersfield's renaissance under Warnock. "I'd like to think I'm quite an intelligent player in that sense and that I can understand the requirements of a variety of different roles and positions.
"I've been saying that one vs one defending is a lot better in the Championship. Obviously there are good defenders in League One, but I think the average defender in the Championship is a lot sharper. It's more about sharpness than physicality or speed; over those five yards, they're just sharper and they get there earlier. It's all a bit quicker mentally as well as physically. But I think I grasped that quite early and I've been able to take it in my stride.
"The defensive side of things is a big part of my game now. I'm good at winning the ball back high up the pitch and starting presses. Once I learnt how to do that, and similar with the gaffer now, he tells us how we're going to press or defended, then I know what I'm going to do now; that's locked in the brain."
Rudoni has been at the heart of Huddersfield's recent renaissance under Warnock (William Early/Getty)Certainly, Rudoni has come to the fore in recent weeks. The youngster finally broke his Championship duck in the dramatic 3-2 win over Watford at the start of the month. He followed that up with another strike in Huddersfield's next game against Blackburn; a pattern eerily similar to circumstances at Wimbledon, where he embarked on somewhat of a goal glut after a long wait for his first senior goal.
"When people were asking when I was going to get that first goal, I was telling everyone that this literally happened at Wimbledon! I didn't score for probably a similar amount of time, then I got one and had four by the end of that season. Then I went on and hit 12 the next season, so hopefully my time here will follow a similar trail and I can get a few more before the end of the year and carry that forward."
Rudoni is an avid student of the game and has previously detailed how he watched clips of various footballers, including Leicester playmaker James Maddison, on YouTube, to try and improve his own game. But since his move to the Championship, the versatile midfielder has fostered a different approach.
"This year I've focused a bit more on myself. We get a lot more time and assistance with our clips here, so I can do them with a coach or an analyst. Narcis [Pelach, assistant coach] will go through clips me as well and tell me how I can improve. I've been looking a lot at my own clips to see where I can improve, especially since I've been playing in a lot of different positions.
Rudoni came through the ranks at AFC Wimbledon before stepping up to the Championship in the summer (Federico Maranesi/NurPhoto)"I'm always watching football, though. And when I'm watching I'm always analysing subconsciously. Even at the weekend, I was watching Manchester United and looking at Bruno Fernandes, like the positions he was picking up to create chances or sending through one-touch passes: those are the things I need to work on in my game to reach the very top, because football happens in split seconds.
"Stuff like that I can learn from, but I'm my own player as well. I feel like I've got a lot more defensively to my game than I did before too. I think I can learn a lot from different players and feed elements back into my own game and become the best player I can."
And as for Huddersfield's battle against the drop, he's more than happy echoing the sentiments of his manager.
"The experience I've had of being in situations like this is not something I want to make a habit of, but it's not new to me, so I understand what's needed to get out of it," concludes Rudoni ahead of Tuesday night's crunch clash with Sunderland.
"I know what's needed to get out of it; I've done it before and we can do it again. I really believe we will. I can try and pass that experience on to others in the team and help as much as I can, but I've got full belief that if we keep playing how we have been then we'll be fine."
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