Huddersfield Town announced their squad numbers for the 24/25 season yesterday and if you’re the kind of person who likes to scrutinise lists of numbers and names to try and find hidden meanings then this sort of thing will be right up your street. Obviously, squad numbers are relatively meaningless these days but then again, it was probably fairly significant to the handful of players that didn’t receive a squad number at all.
There was also some information about a new leadership group for the coming season which provided some hints at some players that maybe aren’t expected to be around for much longer. So I’ll speculate about that stuff too.
Shirt numbers and leadership group for Huddersfield Town 24/25
Here are this season’s squad numbers:
1 – Lee Nicholls
2 – Lasse Sorensen
3 – Josh Ruffels
4 – Matty Pearson
5 – Michał Helik
6 – Jonathan Hogg (C)
8 – Ben Wiles
9 – Bojan Radulovic
10 – Josh Koroma
11 – Rhys Healey
12 – Chris Maxwell
13 – Jacob Chapman
14 – Mickel Miller
15 – Jaheim Headley
16 – Herbie Kane
17 – Brodie Spencer
18 – David Kasumu
20 – Ollie Turton
21 – Antony Evans
22 – Kian Harratt
24 – Radinio Balker
25 – Danny Ward
26 – Pat Jones
28 – Tom Iorpenda
32 – Tom Lees
As well as announcing the first team squad numbers, the club also announced Jonathan Hogg will continue as club captain, which is no surprise but he is supported by a newly formed leadership group, which is a bit new. This seems like an initiative to combat the culture issues that were highlighted at the end of last season. The leadership group is comprised of:
- Matty Pearson
- Ben Wiles
- Jaheim Headley
- Herbie Kane
- Brodie Spencer
Notable names missing from the leadership group
Jonathan Hogg was fairly frequently absent from the pitch last season with a variety of ailments and the armband would typically go to Michal Helik if he was on the pitch. So the big Polish defender’s absence from this leadership group suggests he might not be expected to have much of a long-term future at the club. Similarly, Lee Nicholls is a pretty vocal leader among the squad as well as a member of the goalkeepers’ union, so would have been an obvious choice to be part of this group too. So again, hints towards the club thinking he might be on his way soonish.
On a more positive note, Brodie Spencer is another player likely to attract interest from other clubs but is on this leadership group list, so maybe he’s expected to be sticking around. It’s not exactly like we’ll be turning down offers in the tens of millions just because he’s accepted a role in the club’s leadership group but it’s a little hint that both the club and the player are thinking about him playing a significant part in the coming season.
The mix of names in this leadership group is interesting, as it’s probably not the most obvious names I would come up with if I was going to list six leaders. I would guess that it’s instead meant to be an attempt to give all of the groups of players a voice and unite the dressing room rather than having clusters of groups that don’t gel. It would explain why a couple of fairly recent academy graduates and a player that’s only just signed are in this group when typically it would be the most senior players. While I’ve pointed out Helik and Nicholls being missing, Turton and Lees could equally have also formed part of this group but my guess would be that Pearson and Hogg are the old guard’s representatives in the group, so they’ve tried to let the younger players have a voice too. It’ll be interesting to see if this approach improves the atmosphere.
Which players didn’t get a squad number?
The following players weren’t given a squad number:
- Loick Ayina
- Josh Austerfield
- Kyle Hudlin
- Scott High
While it would be pretty straightforward to reverse this decision and give any of the above four a number, it’s pretty clear that none of these players are currently part of the first team plans for the upcoming season. The club’s comments when Tyreece Simpson left also referenced how he was too old to fit the profile of a B Team player, and you could apply the same logic for Austerfield, High and Hudlin. So it’s probably likely that these players will be shipped out if deals can be found for them, either permanently if possible or on loan deals to run down their contracts if not. Ayina is younger and still has potential to improve but is also getting to the stage where he needs to be playing first team football, so again will need to be shipped out to get games.
When we were first relegated I thought that dropping down a level may give more opportunity to these sorts of fringe players that have struggled to get chances when we were in the Championship. Now I’m thinking more seriously about how difficult League One is likely to be and the quality of the teams that will be challenging at the top end of the league. If anything, we need to be better than last season and can’t afford to give extra chances to players that have repeatedly struggled to make an impact. It’s brutal but football is unfortunately like that.
What do the squad numbers tell us?
Here are a few observations from the list of squad numbers, in no particular order:
- Bojan Radulovic has kept the number 9 shirt. Given his ommission from the Austria trip for a fairly suspicious sounding niggling injury, I thought he might have been on his way out. With Kevin Nagle publicly stating the club’s desire to sign at least one more attacking option, Bojan keeping the most coveted attacking shirt number is a boost to his confidence after struggling to have the impactful preseason that he needed.
- Nicholls has kept the number 1 shirt. I don’t have the exact stats but it’s seemed to me that Chris Maxwell has played the most minutes of preseason of all the keepers, or it’s been at least about an even split between him and Nicholls. So Nicholls getting the number 1 shirt shows he’s still the first choice and maybe hints at him being expected to stay. Or if he does go, he will be replaced by another first-choice so Maxwell won’t get the number 1 shirt whether Nicholls stays or goes.
- Ben Wiles , Rhys Healey, Jacob Chapman and Tom Iorpenda have taken lower numbers. Wiles has gone from 23 to 8, Healey from 44 to 11, Chapman from 31 to 13 and Iorpenda from 39 to 28. These changes aren’t hugely surprising as each player has seen their stock rise over the summer and will likely play a more prominent role in the coming season. Ben Wiles getting the number 8 is deserved, as he’s been excellent in preseason and is genuine competition for new signings, Kane and Evans. Chapman’s choice of 13 is interesting as many players refuse to take a number that is often associated with bad luck, particularly keepers, who can be superstitious – good to see he isn’t bothered by that sort of rubbish.
- The number 7 shirt has been left tantalisingly vacant. Surely this would have been sought after by one of the players with a higher squad number but Sorba Thomas’ old squad number has been left untaken for now. Presumably so a new signing can take the number when they are announced in the coming days. Let’s hope so.
Does Huddersfield Town’s squad meet the League One squad size rules?
A few weeks ago I wrote about the League One squad size rules and whether Town’s squad would meet those rules. The rules are that you can only have 22 players in your squad that you submit to the League after the transfer window shuts but teams don’t include goalkeepers or players that were under 21 at the start of the calendar year in their lists.
So in Town’s squad Iorpenda, Jones and (if we were going to give him a squad number) Ayina wouldn’t count towards the squad numbers but the rest of the outfield players would.
So by my counting, there are 25 players with a squad number, but three are goalkeepers, two are classed as under 21s, so we’re actually at a squad size of 20 by the League’s rules. This would allow us to make two more signings without having to move any players on. Or more if the players coming in themselves were under 21 at the start of the year.
If Nicholls goes, I would like to see another keeper as first choice. Maxwell has played OK but doesn’t exude the confidence that Nicholls gives to the team. Personally I am not a fan of Turton, Ruffels and Harratt but maybe League 1 is their level. Radulovic I would discount altogether. You can also ignore Balker as he won’t feature this year. If you add Thomas that leaves a lot of holes still to be filled.
Based on preseason, Maxwell has made some impressive saves but let a few in that he should have done better with (particularly a few against Aris Limassol). On that basis I think he at least needs proper competition and Chapman hasn’t enough experience to be in that category. So I hope we replace Nicholls if he goes.
I think the unfortunate thing this summer was that we’d tied up a lot of players contracts so we could avoid too much churn. Then a bad season meant we needed an overhaul and we’re stuck with players we can’t get rid of. I have a feeling we won’t see as many new faces as we hoped there would be. But you’re right that ideally we need quite a few more signings.
“we’d tied up a lot of players contracts”. Ward, Hogg to name just two. Look nobody works harder than Ward but he has a job to do and he just isn’t doing it. He is supposed to score goals. Hogg will probably be OK but is OK good enough? We have a plethera of midfielders and if Hogg always takes up 1 slot then our new signings and existing midfielders (and the team!) will lose out. On the striker front , Healey will score a lot but only if he has a big target man next to him. I’m sure you remember Nahki Wells was exactly the same. Only operating properly with a big man beside him. Nagle is allegedly worth $6 Billion. He could probably buy Birmingham a few times over so if he gives Town a couple of million to buy a striker it would be chicken feed to him and help the club enormously.
Hogg’s new deal was a result of our repeatedly failing to bring in a suitable replacement for him over the last few years. I still think he’s out best defensive midfielder but I share your concerns that he may not be up to the standard we need over the whole season. I just worry Kasumu hasn’t got the technical ability.
Ward is allegedly our biggest earner but has been far from the biggest contributor in recent years {aside from the goal he scored at home against Sheffield United to keep us up under Warnock). It would be nice for this season to be the one where we see a decent return from him and him justifying his rumoured wages.
I don’t think anyone knows for sure about Kevin Nagle’s net worth but he’s clearly a very wealthy man. But people who have a lot of money often don’t part with it all that easily. I think he’s happy to spend but only when there’s value in it, which is why we backed out of the Alfie May deal when the wages got silly.
A big awkward lump of a striker would be great. I can’t remember us having one since Alan Lee, maybe Grant Holt but he didn’t play like a bruiser. It would be nice to have the option of playing up to a target man as well as also trying to play nicely, just so we’re not one dimensional.
Kyle Hudlin is big, and he is also a lump -a big and useless lump,
😂 I think there’s a reason he’s not got a squad number or played a minute of preseason for the first team. It’s mad that this time last year Neil Warnock talked the club into giving him an improved and longer contract. Maybe he’ll come good but at 24, he’s hardly a young prospect.
Interesting article.
You appear to be up to date with the rules covering squad size. Are you also okay with the financial fair play rules? Last season a lot was made of the rules by the incoming management yet this year nothing. However with reduced TV revenue and a pay structure that comes from the championship I would expect us to struggle. Can you shed some light on how you see FFP affecting us this coming season?
Hi Tim. I’m far from a financial expert, but I did some Googling, and the rules seem to be completely different in League One and Two compared to the Championship. Rather than FFP rules that set limits on the amount of losses a club can have, Leagues One and Two’s financial rules are more concerned about the percentage of wages in relation to turnovera club has. Off the top of my head it’s 60% for most clubs but 75% for recently relegated clubs. The big loophole of this rule being that cash gifts from owners don’t count in the rules, so clubs with benevolent owners can overspend as much as they like. The only caveat to this is that owner funding must be gifts, not loans, as the whole point is to make sure clubs are sustainable.
For ambitious clubs (hopefully including Town), we still need half an eye on the Championship’s FFP rules because they look at the past three years. So if we bounce straight back then this year’s accounts will be used to calculate whether we fit within future Championship FFP calculations (assuming we actually get back to the Championship).
I don’t follow Birmingham closely but I’m a bit baffled about the seemingly huge sums they’re spending on both transfers and wages. While they can be fine for the League One rules if their wealthy American owner is pumping in cash, they’ll surely have a giant black hole in their accounts with all this spending. There might be something I’m not getting or they may have just decided to “do a Man City” and disregard the rules.
Apologies for the long and complicated reply but hope this sheds some light on things.
Thanks for taking the time to answer my question, on what was a squad article! It’s appreciated, especially as no-one else appears to have addressed the financial question.
Helik played the full 90 minutes and was captain of the team versus Sheffield United. Not in leadership group, neither is Hogg. Captains lead on the field, leadership group has a different purpose. They are more like shop stewards for off- field.