I was tagged in a tweet today where a Town fan speculated about how much yesterday’s starting eleven would have cost and how the likely small fees involved in building our squad show how good a job Carlos has done. Because I’m a bit of a sad act, I went to Google and investigated how much our team cost and was not surprised to see it was not very much at all (in footballing terms at least).
In fact the transfer fees of the players that started yesterday’s game wouldn’t even cover the cost of a two bedroom flat in Fulham, though admittedly it would get you a pretty decent place to live in God’s own county.
How much did Huddersfield Town’s starting eleven cost?
It’s tricky to put a precise number on the transfer fees involved as we live in the age of undisclosed fees. But seven of the starting eleven from yesterday’s game were free transfers, one an academy product and another arrived for no initial transfer fee.
Here’s an approximate breakdown:
Nicholls – Free
Turton – Free
Pearson – Free
Lees – Free
Toffolo – undisclosed (rumoured £400k)
Hogg – undisclosed (rumoured £400k)
Russell – Free
O’Brien – Academy
Thomas – undisclosed (wild guess £200k)
Holmes – Free with payments due on performance-related triggers
Ward – free
The transfer fees for Toffolo and Hogg are most likely fairly close to reality but Sorba Thomas is an unknown factor. Matt from the And He Takes That Chance podcast thinks Sorba’s fee will be close to £400k with add ons. Given Thomas has received international caps and played in nearly every Town game this season he will have most likely triggered those performance related add ons.
Duane Holmes will also have been likely to have triggered the add ons we agreed with Derby as he has become an increasingly influential player for Town this season.
The overall cost of yesterday’s starting eleven was most likely somewhere between £1m and £2m. Even taking the top end of that estimate, it’s less than a quarter of the fee we paid for Mbenza. A third of a Sohbi. Even less than a Hadergjonaj. Probably similar to what we paid for Sabirii. I’ll stop but you get the idea that there are plenty of recent examples of our profligacy in the transfer market that show how we’ve got amazing value for money with our current squad of players.
What kind of flat could you get in Fulham for around £2m?
For £2.2m you could buy a very smart but fairly pokey flat in the Fulham area of London. While you would have excellent rental potential with this property it would not be able to bring the sheer moments of joy Huddersfield Town’s cheaply assembled squad managed to create in Fulham yesterday.
The view of the city skyline is lovely but it’s nowhere near as lovely as watching Danny Ward smash in the opening goal to put Town in the lead.
The access to the flat block’s cinema room will provide some moments of entertainment but nothing like the entertainment of Sorba Thomas using his pace to force the Fulham keeper to foul him and then Holmes smashing in the penalty moments later.
You could socialise with your friends around the fancy kitchen island but wouldn’t you rather be with your pals in the away end going bonkers when the final whistle finally goes?
A word of praise for the recruitment team
Town have a continental style “transfer committee” approach to identifying and signing players. Rather than the old school system of the manager picking the players and the chairman doing the deals, we have a panel of people that select players to sign. They use a mixture of data, scouting and connections within the game (basically Leigh Bromby’s mates) to find players.
While our Premier League days were blighted by poor signings, the last few transfer windows have involved a steady stream of good characters and decent players. While we’ve spent very little in fees, we have still been able to spot players that can operate in the Championship and deliver what Carlos wants on the pitch.
If I’m honest, I would still prefer the head coach/manager had the majority of the input of transfers, but it’s hard to argue with the current system when it’s working well for us.
Town finally have a squad of players that the fans feel a connection to and that’s not just because they’re getting good results. The lack of ego and the willingness to graft we see from this squad makes it far easier to like the current crop compared to the big time Charlies of our final Premier League season.
Whilst perusing through the BBC report of the game I couldn’t resist having a look at all the comments on the message board. One bright spark did his best to wind up the Town fans on there by commenting that he was ‘going home to his 1.5 million home in Fulham. I nearly choked laughing thinking ‘So that’s a bed room bedsit then’ at Fulham property prices.
And Mitrovic probably gets more per week than the whole of the Town team put together!
Isn’t it nice to relax watching Town this season, at least that’s what I thought until the last 15 mins or so. Instead of stressing will we get relegated, it’s will we get promoted! Well done to the team for giving us a good ride this season, whatever the outcome. Seize the day, as they say.
[…] this season – and Huddersfield’s wider recruitment is worthy of praise, as detailed at Terrier Spirit. In contrast to their opponents, Fulham were sloppy, wasteful and arguably guilty of the very […]
Compared to the dump of Huddersfield
“Go to London – I guarantee you’ll either be mugged, or not appreciated.
“Catch the train to London; stopping at rejection, disappointment, backstabbing central and shattered dreams parkway.”
I don’t understand this comment?
I thought this was a decent blog!
I think John is a Fulham fan and is suggesting London is a better place to live than Huddersfield. My comment is a quote from Alan Partridge, summing up what he thinks of London.
Well I think you should have made that clear, better to have ignored “John” whose comment is ill advised to say the least, unlike hammyend….
I still think it is.
What a stat that is. Really puts Saturday’s win into perspective.
Hope we can learn from last time IF we beat the odds again this season.