Huddersfield Town were everyone’s pick for relegation favourites earlier this season and few Town fans grumbled because they expected much the same. So it’s marvelous to be looking forward to a playoff campaign in a few weeks time, especially as Town have qualified with two games to spare.
I’ve said in the past that I don’t really want Town to go up this season because our relegation season in the Premier League was so miserable and I wouldn’t want to spend a year being the whipping boys again. In an attempt to change my own mind, I’m going to write about all the reasons promotion will be a good thing for Huddersfield Town.
This squad has defied expectations and could do so again
One of my big concerns about going up is the possibility of having to overhaul the squad to have enough quality to compete at a higher level. That could mean casting aside the great characters we currently have in the dressing room and bringing in a host of mercenaries that only come for the money and the ability to play in the Premier League.
But maybe we don’t have to do it that way. This squad was expected to go down this season and they’ve consistently performed well in the Championship, maybe they can go a step further? The likes of Lewis O’Brien and Sorba Thomas seem destined for the top flight anyway but maybe there are others in this squad that can make the step up. Hoggy has done it before, Toffolo could be good enough, Russell looks to have the ability (if not the mobility), maybe even Lees and Pearson could do a job.
I think I’d rather see the current, likeable, Town team give it a good go in the Premier League than have to suffer watching new signings turn out for Town that don’t have the same pride in the team. Carlos has shown he can wring every last drop out of this group and maybe he could do the same in the level above.
We’ve learned from past Premier League mistakes
Poor signings really cost us in our first Premier League spell but that doesn’t have to happen again. Other clubs have gone up and spent wisely on players that will do a job for them if they go straight back down.
I think we tried to mostly being in players from abroad with potential to balloon in value if they did well. The problem was that they mostly didn’t and we sold these players for a loss or had to run down their expensive contracts to allow them to leave for nothing.
I’m sure the recruitment team have been working hard on potential targets if we go up but my preference would be to spend money on established Championship performers that could step up to the Premier League rather than speculating on players with good YouTube clips from foreign leagues. That way they can help the club get back up again if we are relegated in the first season rather than thinking they are too good for the second tier.
It’s nice to play on the big stage
One of the things I really enjoyed about going up last time was that it was so easy to keep up to date with Town’s news and non-Town fans I met would want to talk about how we were getting on.
I know many fans were frustrated last time about some of the patronising coverage but at least we were getting coverage and featured on Match of the Day (even if it was usually last). It’s nice to not have to dig deep to find national coverage of our team.
The Premier League is genuinely one of the world’s biggest sporting competitions and it is great for the Town generally as well as the football club to get that kind of recognition. Little things like getting our players on the latest Panini stickers are a nice bonus that makes playing at that level more fun.
The money could set us up for years to come
The commentators love to say how much the playoff final game can earn the winner and its true that the sums involved are eye-watering. While the money can all be spent, and more on top, to give yourself a chance of competing, it doesn’t have to be that way.
If Town go up and show a bit of financial restraint it could elevate them to another level in the longer term. The parachute payments alone are around triple the amount Town turnover from all other sources of money in the Championship so it could give us the ability to become a Norwich / Fulham type of yoyo club.
While the idea of continously bouncing up and down the leagues might not appeal to all. I’d much rather be competing in that sort of position than spending most seasons worrying if we can get enough points to avoid dropping down to League One.
We might be able to establish ourselves at that level
Those of you that are good at reading between the lines might have sensed that I would not expect Town to stay up for long if we are promoted to the Premier League. However, it’s possible that we could stay up.
We have a top young manager and are generally pretty well run these days, so with a few smart signings and a few of our current squad kicking on, it’s possible we could stay up. If nothing else, the momentum from winning the playoffs can give a team enough to notch up early points.
Can we get promoted?
I’ve been quite sceptical about Town’s chances this season, expecting us to fall away and go on another poor run like the one that we saw from Christmas last season. However, we’ve kept going and picked up some impressive points. The team and our head coach have blossomed as the season has gone on and I think we’ve as good a chance as any other team in the playoffs.
Even when we’ve come up against teams that have, on paper, far superior squads, we’ve made nearly every game competitive and kept things quite tight. Then in those tight games we’ve tended to find a way to come out on top more often than not.
The playoffs are a lottery really, but I don’t see any reason why Town shouldn’t fancy their chances given our history in the playoffs, the fact we’ve had such a good season and how hard they are to predict.
It could only be a good thing for the club, but us fans might not enjoy it too much week in week out getting a going over.
That second season really left me coming away with feelings that I wouldn’t mind never going up again, but would love to be involved in the excitement of the playoff race year after year.
That would constitute success to me, if not the club.
From a clubs point of view, financially it would give us the opportunity to pay Hoyle back without the need to take it from squad sales etc, if that’s what he still wants.
The biggest mistake was going abroad for mediocre players in general, or those who’s heart didn’t belong to the club.
I wanted us to buy top Championship players who deserved a crack at the Prem, and if we went down could give us a go at bouncing back.
It may not be what others want but it builds stability, ok a few may leave and a few may not be good enough but I’m sure it’s better than what we were left with.
They would already know the Championship and if they see a strong settled squad capable of challenging would they be desperate to leave ?
We sort of did it, but ditched them too quickly when we didnt go down initially.
We’ve already got a good base of players capable of doing this.
I can’t see Town going up without some attacking options coming back from injury, I thought it was pretty bad upfront against Barnsley in the second half.
That second goal was excellent by the way, if it had been Brazil at a World Cup they’d be playing it time and again.
Probably the best move and goal we’ve produced all season.
Why not give the lads that got us there if we win promotions you never know if they are good enough unless one gives them the chance and for sure they will fight and work like hell to prove that they are .Maybe a player with a ability to find the back of net easily is always a advantage if Town could find one it’s not that easy
I think we can stay up if we go up if we remedy what we got wrong last time. Basically if we learn to get the ball forward much quicker to our frontline l& we vary how we attack opponents defences (neither thing could we solve last time around in the Premier League & it was a lack of goals from that which was the main reason we came back down). However although we have a chance (only really if our fans can get our Team to show a Real Terriers fighting spirit In the play-offs) which I think is possible with the characters that we have in our squad that they may want to fight hard enough in the play-offs anyway but if we can fight hard enough in the play-offs which we normally manage to do with our supporters getting team to fight in a terrier like fashion then we have a chance in play-offs but however I worry about our chances of getting promoted because of Nottingham Forest or Bournemouth who even if we get passed the play-off semi-final we are likely to meet either Nottingham forest or Bournemouth in the final and I’m not sure we’ll be able to get passed either in a play-off final but if we go up & sort out our attacking problems which we couldn’t do last time then we’ll have a chance of staying up if we go up
This is like playing Fantasy Football!! What fun!
I’m another one who owns up to being extremely sceptical about Town staying anywhere near the play-offs so I have to remain sceptical of getting through them.
I’m with you, TS, and other contributors that Town must surely have learned by their mistakes from the last time and that was spending silly money on players not of Premier League standard. Some of them, as it proved, weren’t even Championship standard!
I think we’d have to sign a few players just to prevent total embarrassment but broadly I’d give a vote of confidence to a set of players that almost all the pundits wrote off at the beginning of the season. There clearly is something special going on in terms of team spirit; it must be so because otherwise the pundits would have been right! So we might as well preserve, and even enhance, that spirit and go for it. The worst that could happen is that we get relegated with the lowest ever points, but we come back to the Championship with a wad of cash to secure future prosperity.
Chances to go into the premiership dont come around that often . We have constantly been told this season by elements of the media that we are not good enough to finish in the top 6 let alone still have ( albeit a slim one ) a chance of automatic promotion with 2 games left ! This team spirit could be carried through to next season and with a decent start may be a big part of us having a decent season like the last first one we had. This will depend on a few new signings and will stop the development of younger players as the levels are so much higher than the championship however i am all for promotion should it happen. My biggest fear is if we miss out this time and cant keep the standard required for another push next season especially if some players leave and we are mid table but thats a risk i will take right now.
The last season of the Premiership was just so painful to watch, as indeed was the first season from around December time except then we had the buffer of points in the bag which provided solace and confidence at times.
It’s true that the club’s mismanagement in terms of signings especially for the second season was dreadful to witness and doesn’t bear repeating.
CC has, obviously with the help of the players, done a magnificent job, but the ages of some players entering this arena for the first time will be a big ask. The skill levels have to be high coupled with the necessary pace being an even bigger ask. Hogg in particular but there were a few others, not now with us were particularly deficient first time around.
If we don’t want to lose O’Brien and Thomas we may have to go up, so let’s go for it!
I want HTFC to be the best team in Europe. Realistically that is unlikely but I would rather be in the big league being privileged to see some of the best players in the world going for it than being lower down the football pyramid where it will never happen.
It’s a good question and in my mind I keep reminding myself that the journey is the fun part not particularly the destination. This has been a really successful season for Town and we’ve taken something from 34 of our league games, better in the cups with a Prem scalp, and 60 goals plus to enjoy.
I’m in the same camp as several posters above, buy the best young upcoming Championship/League prospects we can who will be both hungry to prove in PL but better for the experience and quality/right mindset for the Championship if don’t survive. I’d add to that 1 or two short contract experienced PL heads (Milner types!) though that would probably be Hoggys best contribution.
I’d keep Nicholls, Toffolo, Sorba, LOB as 1st team. I’d keep Lees/Pearson for 1 CB position, Hogg, Russell, Pipa, Ward, Koroma as squad players. Then I’d be looking to recruit a top class spine, a CB, DM, AMs of Championship talent and the real money on a proven goalscorer. Easy right :0p
At least the infrastructure is better for PL (people forget how much money went on that last time) and it must be impossible to balls up the recruitment as much as last time.
17th in the PL should be considered a massive success and an understanding the 2nd year is actually harder than the first without promotion momentum.
UTT.
“The money could set us up for years to come ” Shouldn’t this say “The money could set Dean Hoyle up for years to come” or has something changed since last time. The “sale” to Hodgkinson was just a ploy to get his money back out via the parachute payments – with no thought as to the wellbeing of the club. Hodgkinson was never wealthy enough to purchase and maintain the club. Now having said all that it was Hodgkinson that brought in Bromby and his recruitment team to get good (free!) players in. It was Hodgkinson who got rid of all the high disinterested wage earners and of course he employed Carlos Corberan so he didn’t do half bad. Unfortunately his lack of wealth became even more obvious after he was unable to support his own businesses as almost all went into administration. Last time we were promoted we had a poor inexperienced manager who though likeable just wasn’t good enough. We also had an inexperienced chairman who went silly with the Premier League money being thrown at him. If we can keep Corberan and give him some players with a bit of quality, there is no reason why Town couldn’t compete at least mid table in the Premier League. The chairman will hopefully also have learned a bit of sense after his disastrous performance last time and not just see pound signs.