Joe Taylor departs Huddersfield Town for Wigan Athletic loan

Our reaction as the centre-forward will spend the rest of the League One season with the Terriers' divisional rivals

Joe Taylor has moved to Wigan Athletic on loan for the rest of the season.

The centre-forward arrived at Huddersfield Town from Luton last January for a reported £3m fee.

However, Taylor has struggled to nail down a place in the starting line-up with any regularity bar a four-game stretch in the side in September.

Despite having racked up seven goals in all competitions, the 23 year old has found himself behind Bojan Radulovic, Alfie May and Dion Charles in the pecking order.

That meant Taylor found himself out of Grant’s matchday squad altogether over the Christmas and new year period, and he has not started a league game since October.

Wigan currently sit 15th in the table, 10 places and nine points behind Town, and just three points above the relegation zone. Although their defensive record is reasonably solid, they have struggled to score goals this season with just 26 strikes in their 24 league games.

Grant said in a club statement: “Having had good conversations as both a club and with Joe, allowing him the opportunity to join a side where he is likely to play more regularly was agreed to be in the best interests of all concerned.

“Within all competitive squads, there are always going to be players who don’t feature as much or as often as they would like, but at still just 23 years old, Joe is at a stage of his career where regular minutes are hugely important for his development.

“There is no doubting Joe’s ability or his desire to play football and score goals. If he’s able to show his level more consistently with Wigan Athletic and return to the club in the summer with good minutes and goals under his belt, this loan will have proven a success for us all.

“We’ll be in close contact with Joe throughout and will be monitoring his development, and wish him nothing but the best for the remainder of the season.”

We also spoke to Lee Grant about Joe Taylor’s situation at Thursday afternoon’s press conference. The full transcript of that is available to our paying subscribers below after our reaction — get signed up now for full access to everything we do here at We Are Terriers.

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We Are Terriers reaction

In many ways we have sympathy for Joe Taylor. Professionally speaking, it’s been a bit of a nightmare 18 months for him.