Huddersfield desperate their Premier League fairytale doesn't end in tears
The Terriers have three matches left to save themselves - Manchester City away, Chelsea away and Arsenal at home - and David Wagner is determined to fight until the end
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Your support makes all the difference.“Every game has an exciting story and we are part of each story. We have to make sure that at least one of the stories is positive for Huddersfield.” David Wagner, Saturday, 5.30pm.
The Huddersfield Town manager was entitled to be morose. He had just seen his earnest, faltering team strive for 90 minutes and fail to force Everton’s Jordan Pickford into a meaningful save. Hard hearts watched on and thought Town were not waving, rather the other bit.
Now, his back to a press room wall, Wagner stopped reflecting and looked forward. Huddersfield have three matches left - Manchester City away, Chelsea away, Arsenal at home. “All of them have something special,” he said.
“We play Man City, and I think they get the crown this day? We play Chelsea and they maybe really need the points to fight for the top four. And then we play Arsenal, Arsene Wenger’s last game of his Premier League time.”
It would be a stretch to say Wagner licked his lips at the prospect of this trio of daunting dates that will define Town’s Premier League destiny - “I am confident to say it will be difficult, and I don’t like it, but it’s possible” - but he countered the inclination to be pessimistic. He reminded all that games of this profile are why Town fought so hard for promotion and said he would “lift everybody”.
How will he do that?
“I will look in everybody’s eyes,” Wagner said, “and I will use the right words. Game on.”
Those right words will presumably include taking his players back to where Huddersfield Town were when he and they started the climb they have been on. It is a worthwhile review.
Town lost 3-1 at Sheffield Wednesday in Wagner’s first match after succeeding Chris Powell in November 2015. They lost the following week, too, at home to Middlesbrough. As 2016 approached Huddersfield were in the Championship relegation zone, sandwiched between Charlton Athletic and Rotherham United. Those two have relocated to League One.
By season’s end Wagner had gathered his Terriers and cajoled them to 19th place and safety. It is what Town have done since and how they have done it that is remarkable.
It has been a consequence of inspiring coaching from the German, shrewd recruitment and ongoing investment by benevolent owner Dean Hoyle. The local businessman is fundamental to Town being a presence, never mind a prospering one.
Hoyle’s financing enabled Wagner to break the club transfer record the summer before last, but it was a sum of £1.8m for Christopher Schindler.
Schindler came from 1860 Munich, who were about to be relegated to Bundesliga 2. The following January Colin Quaner also joined from Bundesliga 2, from Union Berlin. Florent Hadergjonaj is another from the same division. The three players’ combined cost is around £5m. All three played on Saturday.
So did Mathias ‘Zanka’ Jorgensen who came from FC Copenhagen for £3.5m and goalkeeper Jonas Lossl, whose loan from Mainz will become permanent.
Such players have not just bought into Wagner and Town, they have taken a wage dwarfed by others in the Premier League and beaten by all but a few clubs in the Championship. Promotion last May came from a club income of £16m. Norwich City’s parachute payment alone, for example, was more than double that.
This season, at approximately £25,000 per week, Huddersfield’s per-player wages are comfortably the lowest in the Premier League, though there will be bonuses should they stay up.
An exception is Tom Ince, who came from Derby County on a large salary. Ince cost £7.5m and along with the initial £8m paid to City for Aaron Mooy, the £11½m for Steve Mounie from Montpellier and the £10m for Alex Pritchard from Norwich, constitutes the bulk of a total net spend of £50m. Include last season, though, and the net spend is £57m.
There has been significant turnover. Only one of the 14 players used in Wagner’s first game at Hillsborough appeared against Everton – captain Jonathan Hogg.
That has risks. As Sam Allardyce said: “I didn’t bring in as many players [at Bolton] as Huddersfield have in their first season. To get them to gel is pretty good.”
Bolton entered the Premier League under Allardyce in 2001 via the play-offs. Another element of Huddersfield’s season is that while Brighton were promoted on April 17th last year and could begin planning immediately, Town, who finished fifth, were still taking penalty-kicks at Wembley against Reading on May 29th.
It is a six-week deficit and it has an effect: the last three clubs promoted through the Championship play-offs - Hull City, Norwich and QPR - went straight back down.
Until the 39th minute on Saturday, Huddersfield appeared to be about buck that trend. Via Quaner and Pritchard they were attacking Everton’s left flank with some success.
The crowd, such a feature of the club, were up and at it - an early rendition of ‘Stand up if you love the Town’ prompted crutches in the air from one fan in front of the directors’ box. One Town director there, Roger Burnley, said in the programme that four of his all-time favourite moments in 46 years supporting have come in the past 12 months.
Then Theo Walcott and Cenk Tosun – a combined £47m in January - broke away to score.
The statistic of Huddersfield not coming from behind to win this season re-surfaced and Town, along with Stoke, have scored fewest goals – 27 in 35 games. It is an obvious flaw, the hardest to correct.
Everton’s starting XI – ballpark cost £150m – began to control opponents costing £38m. Idrissa Gana Gueye added a second and by the final whistle the noise had gone from manic to murmur.
“I played for Huddersfield, so I’d like them to stay up,” Allardyce said, and by way of encouragement added: “They have beaten Man United here, so they are capable.”
That was in October, one of nine Town victories – three more than Southampton.
Wagner’s right words will presumably refer to those as the Terriers prepare to face the City sheikhs and Chelsea oligarchs.
And then come the Arsenal. It was 1993 the last time the Gunners went to Huddersfield, so long ago the game was at Leeds Road. Ian Wright scored a hat-trick.
On May 13th it will be Wagner v Wenger in the Herbert Chapman derby. What could be Wenger’s last Arsenal match, unless they are in the Europa League final three days later, could be Town’s last hurrah. The Premier League does like a story and it looks like there’s one that day.
Find the right words and Huddersfield Town will still have a speaking part regarding the relegation of others. It’s fraught, but game on.
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