Martin Drury is a straight-talking man, open about the fact it was never in his plans to become a head coach. Granted, he was in charge of Bradford Park Avenue in the National League North for much of 2015/16, but that came quite shortly after his retirement and he soon disappeared into the background. Over the next decade, he built a coaching career that took in spells at Boston United, Bradford City, Manchester United, West Brom and Valencia.
Now at Huddersfield - the team of the town in which he was born - he is in charge in his own right. An interim spell from March led to a two-year deal in May. Here, he tells Sky Sports about his journey from LaLiga to the Premier League to plotting the Terriers' way out of League One.
Drury met Carlos Corberan while he was at Bradford and the Spaniard was at Leeds. The two began to work together in August 2024 when Drury was appointed individual coach at West Brom. "When I first met Carlos, I felt we connected from a work ethic perspective and we were very much aligned in how we saw life and earning everything you get in life through work," he says.
"On the football side, we were very much aligned on what we believed in and what we truly believed we could do with players. I think we have some similar characteristics, despite being from different cultures." Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Corberan left for Valencia on Christmas Eve 2024 and Drury followed within a matter of days after being appointed as his assistant. A Championship play-off push was sacrificed for the challenge of keeping Los Murcielagos in LaLiga.
They almost had the perfect start, leading Real Madrid at the Mestalla until the 85th minute on January 3 2025, when Luka Modric levelled and Jude Bellingham scored the 96th-minute winner. "I remember prepping for that game and thinking this was the type of environment I wanted to be in, to go up against players like Kylian Mbappe, Bellingham, Modric. "To play them again at the back end of the season and win 2-1 - in the last minute, in the Bernabeu - was naturally the highlight and the connection between us and the fans there was something so, so special.
"We suffered in both of the games against Barcelona, but to see the quality of player at that level in the flesh and to prep for those games against some of the best managers in the world, the best players in the world, on a weekly basis, was something I loved." "When we arrived, the club were rock bottom of the league and to finish so close to Europe by the end of the season, having picked up some points against giants was pretty special. Drury was tempted back to the UK in July 2025, when he was appointed as one of Keith Andrews' assistant first-team coaches at Brentford. But by early September, after just three Premier League games, he departed.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
