How is ex-Portsmouth and Huddersfield Town manager Danny Cowley getting on these days? | OneFootball

The manager had an extended break from coaching after leaving Pompey.

Danny Cowley has experienced the full rollercoaster ride of being a manager in the EFL.

He and his brother Nick helped build Lincoln City into the stable League One club that they now are.

The two of them didn't have any real professional footballing experience before getting their respective positions with the Imps. Danny played non-league football in the 2000s after being released by Wimbledon after he began to suffer from Osgood-Schlatter disease.

They earned their stripes in the sport by working their way up the pyramid, starting their management career together with Concord Rangers and Braintree Town before taking over at Lincoln.

The success he had at the LNER Stadium, including two promotions in the 2016/17 and 2018/19 seasons, taking them from the National League to League One, eventually led the manager to join Huddersfield Town.

Describing his time with the Terriers would be very similar to how you'd describe the Middlesbrough-born boss' experience with the clubs that then followed, like Portsmouth.

There were occasional highs in both roles, like winning the Championship and League One Manager of the Month awards, but, eventually, it got to a point with both teams where they started to struggle, and they decided to go in a different direction.

Neither Pompey nor Town were at risk of relegation with Cowley at the helm, but he wasn't able to get either club to really push on in the way that he'd been able to do so with Lincoln.

Cowley and his brother have had in work in football since leaving Fratton Park, and here's how they have got on.

Once his time with Portsmouth had ended, after a run of over two months without a league victory, on January 2nd 2023, Cowley had a year away from coaching.

The new year blues had hit him in 2023, but the start of 2024 was a celebration for Cowley and his brother.

They were announced as Colchester United's new manager and assistant manager on January 4th 2024. At the time, Colchester were five points above the dropzone with 20 games to go in the season.

Over the course of those remaining games, the U's were able to pick up 22 points, which was just enough to keep them up. They actually secured their survival on the final day of the season, confirming the relegation of Sutton United.

Cowley led Colchester into the start of the 2024/25 season. Many saw the club's summer business and felt they may be this season's League Two dark horses.

They haven't quite lived up to that bill, unfortunately. They're a considerable closer to the bottom two than they are to the play-off places.

Danny Cowley wasn't a great fit for Huddersfield or Portsmouth

There is a rebuild in the lower levels for the Cowley brothers

Because of the style of football that Cowley's teams tend to adopt, if results aren't positive it's hard to be positive about much else. He's not the most progressive, modern, front-footed manager out there.

If you're not going to entertain supporters, there's a need to at least be successful on the pitch. Unfortunately, Cowley couldn't sustain the brief success he had at both clubs.

Given how he did with Huddersfield and Portsmouth, it's unlikely that he'll get another job at that sort of level any time soon, unless he takes Colchester on a similar journey to the one that he took Lincoln.