How well will Huddersfield do in the Premier League next season?
It's been a question which is on everyone associated with Huddersfield Town and many who follow the championship's mind towards the tail end to this thrilling football season. How well can a small club with limited funds like Huddersfield Town who seem to be glitch in the system in the way they have achieved promotion as they have gone from aiming to survive relegation to gaining promotion in the ultimate style, beating Reading on penalties in the playoff final, do in the 17/18 Premier league season which will be the club's first in the Premier league despite winning the first division three times successively in the mid 1920's.
First let us look to the past and the thrilling events of the surprisingly extraordinary 16/17 season for the club nicknamed "The Terriers". After finishing 19th in the 15/16 season in a season which had three managers and which ended with David Wagner in charge of the Yorkshire-based club. A finish of a similar standard was expected in the following campaign with many tipping the Terriers for relegation. Despite these gloomy predictions, Huddersfield and their limited but passionate squad went from strength to strength and by week 11 of the season they were top of the league despite the core of their squad consisting of loan players like Aaron Mooy and Elias Kachunga. The club only suffered defeat 15 times in the campaign and the lowest position at the end of any week was an impressive 8th in game-week 19. The squad success has largely been attributed to former Borussia Dortmund II manager David Wagner who had his team expertly drilled and each player looked as if they fully knew their role in each game and their concentration levels never seemed to drop. The club finished in a brilliant 5th position and would play Sheffield Wednesday in the highly-anticipated playoff semi finals. The First leg at Huddersfield's John Smith's Stadium finished 0-0 and the return leg finished 1-1 after extra time meaning a penalty shootout was needed. Wagner's men won the tie after Wednesday's Fernando Forestieri missed his spot kick. Next up was Reading in the most expensive game in world football. The game was a boring one and again penalties was needed after a 0-0 draw. Despite Huddersfield's Michael Hefele handing Reading the advantage early on in the shootout, the Terriers won after Chris Schindler's pen was struck home at Wembley cuing mass celebration from Huddersfield's supporters.
However despite it only being less than a week after Huddersfield's historic win at Wembley, I am going to assess how well Huddersfield will/can do in their first Premier league campaign. The obvious reason it is a hard and interesting question is due to the fact that signing the club makes in the summer and January window will change how well the club do significantly.
Despite having limited funds promotion to the premier league has given the club just shy of 200 million pounds and as a follower of the Premier league you would want a bulk of that ridiculous amount of money to be spent on the squad for next season as they look to battle relegation and maybe even push further up the table. With limited funds Wagner has already made some incredible signings but they have mostly been on loan and these players make up the core of Huddersfield's side for example Danny Ward in goal on loan from Liverpool and Aaron Mooy in midfield on loan from Manchester City. It is absolutely crucial that Wagner and his team keep hold of these players if Huddersfield are going to have any chance of staying up. Mooy has already bossed midfield in the championship with relative ease and looks like he will be able to adapt to the harsher conditions of England's top division. Ward has experience in the Premier league having played for Liverpool. Arguments against Huddersfield availability to get these players may be flawed as if you were Antonio Conte for example who loaned the likes of Izzy Brown and Kasey Palmer to Huddersfield last term, would you not want the chance of players who can't play against you and will not break into the first team, taking points of your title rivals. The same goes for Manchester City and Liverpool. The answer is likely to be yes and this will help Huddersfield as they may look to raid the loan market again this summer coming. Permanent transfers are a different stories all together and one may question Huddersfield's ability to draw players up to the North of England but to those arguments I would refer to the immense pulling power of playing at England's elite level will pull almost all players from England's lower levels and many from foreign leagues as well who want the chance to make an name for themselves in England. This along with the fact that clubs have stayed up with limited budgets in the past for example Burnley this season just finished despite spending nothing compared with others towards and that end to the table and the same could be said about West Bromwich Albion who have only just started spending substantial amount of money.
As far as how the actual season will pan out for the terriers, the hopes rest on the skills of the inexperienced David Wagner's shoulders. The manager should be there next season and despite showing brilliant management skills in the championship, next season will be much bigger and harder task for the German ,who represented the USA at international level, a task he will no doubt be relishing. Wagner's entertaining but hardworking brand of Klopp-like football worked wonders in the championship but may become stale in the premier league where the pace of Huddersfield attack will be matched by a large number of premier league defenders whereas it was not in the championship where you tend to have more old-school slower defenders for example Ciaran Clark or Pontus Jansson. This may lead to a forced adaptation for Wagner which other promoted managers may not struggle as much with as they (Hughton and Benitez) do as they have vast amounts of previous Premier league experience.
Those saying Huddersfield will emulate Derby County's infamous yield of 11 points of the 2007-08 are underrating both Huddersfield's squad and David Wagner's management skills. Derby were in a torrid state at the time whereas Huddersfield seem to be a club on the rise going from league one to the Premier league in 6 years. While it's extremely unlikely Hudderfield will not be in a relegation battle, there are other clubs in very similar positions who can replace them in the drop zone come this time next year for example: Brighton, Bournemouth, Swansea, Burnley etc...
Despite this though there is no doubt next season will be an extremely hard one for Wagner and co. With limited spending compared to the likes of Bournemouth and Newcastle who they may have to compete very closely with for survival, it is likely this season is doomed from the beginning and despite having the pull of the Premier league other clubs like Newcastle will no doubt be a more attractive club for a player to move to than a small club like Huddersfield.
In conclusion I am predicting a very tough season for Huddersfield Town next term, which will be even worse if Wagner isn't given the required money to spend in the Premier league to heighten their chances of survival. Despite Brighton being in a similar situation I can relegation for the Terriers as the most likely outcome to a season that will no doubt be full of surprises, mistakes and ridiculous moments.
Want to here me and the others on The Football Way Podcast talk over in detail Huddersfield's chances next season? Be sure to tune in to our brilliant podcasts every Wednesday Evening.
Written by Dan Byrne