Huddersfield beat the odds and brutal economics for the greatest Premier League survival we've ever seen
The financial gap between Huddersfield and Manchester City is the biggest the Premier League has ever seen - this is why those post-match beers are so deserved
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Your support makes all the difference.In the jubilant Huddersfield Town dressing room, where there were wild scenes of celebration and the type of loud music pumping that makes you unable to think of anything except the great reason it’s being played, there was still one decision that everyone was clear-headed enough to completely agree on.
David Wagner’s players told him they wanted to go back by coach rather than the scheduled plane. That is because it is a journey that is then three hours longer, and allows to them to properly celebrate survival; to properly have a drink.
“More than one!” the manager smiled.
It will be to celebrate the fact they are certain of more than one year in the Premier League.
That is more than pretty much anyone expected, and is probably the finest survival feat the competition has seen, and thereby one of its finest feats full-stop.
That really is no exaggeration. You only have to look at the figures, figures that Huddersfield’s own hierarchy wondering last season whether promotion came too soon. Instead, they defied all, not least those usually punishing economics - economics that have never been so brutal. The financial gap between Huddersfield and Manchester City is the biggest the Premier League has ever seen between the poorest club and richest, both in relative terms and absolute terms. This is why it is an absolutely sensational achievement by Wagner. This is why those beers are so deserved. This is why everything that Wagner said after the game about it feeling like a trophy, about it being bigger than promotion, was so fully justified.
“This is an absolute over-achievement,” Wagner said. “It's a bigger achievement than the promotion last season. Last year we were predicted to be relegated and we got promoted. This season we were predicted to be a team relegated by miles, and I understand it. We work under circumstances which are not even Championship circumstances… It feels like another trophy.”
There was then the manner they stayed up as much as the money.
Huddersfield did not stay up because other results went their way, because bottom sides like Swansea City and Stoke City could not stop losing.
They did it by claiming results away to the very top teams, as they ultimately secured safety with draws at the new champions in Manchester City and last champions in Chelsea.
“This achievement for our football club is just incredible,” Wagner said. “We did it on our own. We didn't rely on anybody. We did it with our result, in this week with City, Chelsea and Arsenal... it's just unbelievable. I'm so proud the players have done it by themselves, and I'm happy for them, my backroom staff and the fans. For sure Chelsea were the better team and we had the Lady Luck. We saw top, top quality in Chelsea's side, and we saw desire, spirit, great attitude and an unbelievable work-rate on our side, and sometimes that's enough. Today was a stolen point but, to be perfectly honest, I don't care.”
But not really stolen. Huddersfield earned it. They stood their ground.
Panic never once infiltrated their game. The bravery and willingness to seize rare opportunities like the one from which Laurent Delpoitre scored came from an impressive calmness, that radiated from the manager.
You could say that was something else that came from the knowledge they never should have been this far in the first place, but that would be to do them a disservice, because it was down to something more. It was down to a quality Wagner and the club have imbued in the side.
“But part of our DNA, the Huddersfield Town DNA, is to try it. To have passion, desire... how big you are doesn't count. It's about trying everything. We are humble. We are ambitious, too. We search a chance in every game. Today we were chanceless, more or less.”
And yet they still took their chance, in so many senses. They absolutely maximised what they had, the story of the last two seasons.
At the end, Wagner was asked about next season. He laughed.
“With respect, I have no thoughts about next season at all!”
The only thought was to celebrate this season. It is a celebration rarely more deserved, from a season rarely more impressive.
You only have to look at the figures, but there’s mercifully so much more to it than that. For that, you only had to look at the faces.
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