Huddersfield Town v Vincent Kompany's Burnley
The Sky Bet Championship
Friday July 29th - 20:00 ko
at the John Smith's Stadium

Huddersfield Town welcome Vincent Kompany's Burnley to the John McAlpharm Stadium on Friday evening for another match televised live on Sky Sports Huddersfield Town, channel 403.

We are on the brink of a new era if only........

Carlos is gone, Danny Schofield is the new Head Coach. Is this a wise move? Who knows? We certainly over achieved last season. The football played in the Corberan era was no great shakes, but it was effective. We relied probably too much on set pieces and definitely need to improve with chances created in open play.

The pre season friendlies have as usual, shown nothing to get excited about, but at least we didn't lose at Fleetwood, like we did twelve months ago. No, we lost at Harrogate and Doncaster.

At least we looked much better on Saturday at Bolton, drawing 1-1 with a Danny Ward goal in first half injury time cancelled out by a Trotters' equaliser in 2nd half injury time. Earlier in the day though, we won 4-1 at Tranmere. So not all bad news.

The squad was split in two for those matches though, which was a bit daft really. But as we all know, the results mean sod all.

Vincent Kompany's Burnley meanwhile have beaten Rochdale, lost to Wolves and had three 45 minute games with Newcastle, losing all three.

Since getting relegated, they released a boat load of names including the likes of Aaron Lennon, Dale Stephens, James Tarkowski, Wayne Hennessey and skipper Ben Mee. They have also sold Nick Pope to Newcastle for ten million and Nathan Collins to Wolves for twenty million.

Some of that money has been reinvested though, bringing in Scott Twine from MK Dons (£4m), Luke McNally from Oxford (£2m), goalkeeper Arijanet Muric from Man City (£3m), ex Bantam Josh Cullen from Anderlecht (£3m), Samuel Bastien from Standard Liège (£685,000) and CJ Egan-Riley from Man City (£350,000).

GET YOUR BLOODY CHEQUE BOOK OUT, HOYLE! 

Head to Head



Burnley lead the head to head with 33 wins to Town's 28, with 14 draws.

The last time we played them was last season in the FA Cup, which of course we won. It didn't start well for Town when Carlos Corberan made a boatload of changes, one of them leaving out altogether the inspirational goalkeeper, Lee Nicholls and replacing him with the young, unreliable Ryan Schofield. He was at fault for the opening goal, coming out for a cross and getting nowhere near, allowing Jay Rodriguez to score.

Scrotum faced Burnley chief, Sean Dyche was missing due to having Covid 19, but had already got his excuses in, saying his team was hard hit with injuries. Yeah right! Their line up was full of internationals and experience of the Prima Donna League, whereas ours was full of lower league freebies and we had a junior goalkeeper on the bench, who had never made a first team appearance before. That was Nick Bilokapic and he was called into action in the 40th minute when Schofield got crocked by the lanky streak of piss, Chris Wood.

The Clarets were so crap that the young lad didn't have anything at all to do. Our defence kept them quiet and when Carlos brought Sorba Thomas on after 69 minutes, the game began to go our way. First he played a great one two with Duane Holmes, out paced the geriatric Burnley defence and sent in a low, teasing cross that Josh Koroma converted at the far post.

Then in the 87th minute, he swung in a corner that met the head of Matty Pearson perfectly and the ball was in the net. Matty scoring the winner against Burnley, just like he had a few years earlier when he scored an extra time winner for Accrington Stanley against them in the League Cup.

Get on him for the winner for this one.

So that was last season in the Cup, before that, we had two seasons with them in the Premier League. Of the four games, three were drawn and they won one of them. The first season, 2017/18 had two goal less draws. The first one at Turf Moor had Christopher Schindler as man of the match, but the talking point afterwards was the character assassination made by Dyche on Rajiv van La Parra. He accused him of diving and all the arseholes on Match of the Day all agreed with him. Maybe he did go down easily, but where are Gary Linekar and his mates when Harry Kane or Raheem Sterling dive a million times every game? Pricks!

Oddly, Dyche didn't have much to say in the match at our place when Jeff Kendrick went down in the area, claiming a penalty when it was a clear dive. Well he did have a lot to say actually, claiming it was a penalty, obviously. Two faced rat bag. I hope we never see him back in the game. Arsehole!

So to 2018/19 and playing first at Turf Moor. Sam Vokes gave the Claret Jugs the lead but it was that man Schindler heading home the equaliser in the second half. The return game in January didn't go well though for Schindy. He was sent off by dozy Mike Dean, one of the worst referees ever to blow a whistle.

That came after Steve Mounie had given us the lead and the streak of piss Wood had equalised. Ashley Barnes got a late winner, before the ref levelled up the numbers in the 90th minute, sending off Robbie Brady.

So what's going on down Harry Potts Way? Managed nowadays by Vincent Kompany, a Belgian geezer who turned out for Man City a few times.

He's 36 years old now and this is his second managerial job, having done a player/manager role at Anderlecht when he left the Emptihad. He was born in Uccle and started his playing career with Anderlecht in 2000, signing professional with them in 2003. He had a couiple of seasons in Germany as a Hamburger, but then joined Man City in 2008.

Having won the Belgian First Division twice, he then won a sackful of medals at Citeh. He won the Prima Donna League four times, the FA Cup twice, the League Cup four times, the Community Shield twice, most of these as captain.

He's a good bloke, unlike his horrible predecessor and does a lot of stuff for charity. He's an ambassador for FIFA for the charity SOS Children and has invested loads in Congo for charities working for children in poverty.

Now if you were wondering why, having escaped from Manchester, did he want to come back and work in deepest, darkest Lancastershire, well that'll be because he married a Manc in 2011 and they have three kids. Fair enough, Vince. But Burnley?

So Vince is a good guy. If you're looking for somebody to BOOOOOOOO!! He's got Craig Bellamy in as his number two. 

Quote:
His qualities are exactly the ones we look for in one of our central midfield roles within our game model. David brings fantastic energy to the pitch, can carry the ball well and has great defensive instincts too. When we met him, it was very clear what a great attitude he has; he shares our ‘Terrier Spirit’ when it comes to hard work.

The next signing then was a new manager, after that blummin' Carlos walked out. That man was ex Town striker Danny Schofield. He was in charge for that just mentioned Millwall match, but also took control of the Derby game at the start of last season when Carlos had Covid. Was he in control? Nah!

He is now though and so the lad brought into the club by Peter Jackson in 1998 from Brodsworth Miners Welfare in the Northern Counties East Football League for a massive fee of £2,000, has now worked his way up from non league player to manager of the greatest football club in the world.

He scored 46 goals in his playing days with the Terriers and now stands in 31= place in our all time goal scorers chart, hopefully to be overtaken by Danny Ward before long. Wardy's on 36 so far.

Quote:We’re on the brink of the 2022/23 Sky Bet Championship season, and I cannot wait for Friday’s home opener against Burnley!

It’s been a very short summer, especially as our season was extended due to the Play-Off campaign, but everyone at the Club is ready and raring to go for the new season.

Ahead of Friday evening's match, it feels right to update you on the latest events at the Club.

Firstly, the process of acquiring back 100% of the shares in the Club is still ongoing. It’s simply that these things take time. For example, you must apply to the Financial Conduct Authority when there is a change of control in a Club, and there is a backlog following the pandemic. What I can say is that it has not impacted negatively on the day-to-day running of the Club; I’m at the John Smith’s Stadium and the Millers Oils High Performance Complex daily and its simply business as usual. I will update you all on any significant changes on the process when they occur.

I do feel it’s important to clarify the Club’s financial position, as I’m aware there has been a lot of conjecture on the matter recently.

It’s been well documented that I came back into the Club last October. Since then, to this day, I have put an eight figure sum into the Club. That has covered the Club’s ongoing costs and has straightened out legacy club creditor payments that were overdue.

Without any player trading, the Club – with its current wage bill – stands to lose circa £10 million per season. That figure has gone up since I was last 100% owner and the Club was in the Championship because of the additional staffing, resource, and general Premier League-standard setup at the Millers Oils High Performance Complex. I have no issue with that at all, because we’ve seen the benefit of it on the pitch.

There are different options to mitigate that loss. We could increase prices of items such as Season Cards, we could reduce the wage bill or reduce the costs of the First Team provision at the training ground.

However, I’ve decided not to take any of those options because we don’t want to reduce ‘bums on seats’ and we want to be as competitive as possible on the pitch. In order to be as competitive as we saw last season with a low wage bill, we have to maintain the support structure, staffing and wider support network at the training ground and the increased costs that brings. That all goes hand-in-hand. This is our model.

As a result, we must mitigate those costs by trading players. We already had guaranteed money coming in over the next four years from the sale of Karlan Grant, and now we have additional funds over the same period from the sales of Lewis O’Brien and Harry Toffolo. That will take the Club’s annual losses down to around £5 million per season over the next four years, without any further sales or incoming transfers.

Without any further player trading, that is the amount I must put into the Club. When that money needs to be put in during the season is always fluid, and dependent on our cash flow, but that will be the final figure.

I want to be very clear with this next point – the idea that we sell players only to reduce the level of my loans is totally incorrect. The level of my loans today is the same as the season before we gained promotion to the Premier League, which is not an insignificant sum.

As an owner, this is my duty to the Club - and my will to do so.

It’s also important to reiterate that this club will always be one that trades players, in and out. It needs to be to service the football costs that will allow us to be competitive at this level.

As the person at the top, I do not - and cannot - make decisions in order to be popular. It is my responsibility to make decisions that are the best ones for Huddersfield Town. A good example of such a decision was the change we made to our Academy in September 2017; we knew it would not be immediately well received, but I believe we are now seeing the benefits of that change.

That sets out the financial position at the Club. You don’t have to simply take my word for it either – it will all be spelled out in black and white in the Club’s accounts. With that, I 100% believe that we can be extremely competitive in the Sky Bet Championship, as we saw last season!

In terms of the Club’s ambition moving forward, last season has set the standard for us. We all understand that football, particularly in the Championship, has ups and downs season by season, but it is our aim to be in and around the upper echelons of the division. That should be the aim of every team in this division when the first game comes around.

Since I last penned one of these updates, Carlos Corberán has left the Club and Danny Schofield has been appointed our new Head Coach. When someone in this position leaves, there will always be speculation – but there is nothing more I can say that wasn’t said when he made the decision to leave. I believe Carlos thought he couldn’t take us any further than he did last season. On the other hand, I – along with everyone here – believe that we still have the potential to go further. I genuinely wish Carlos all the best for the future.

I firmly believe the squad is well set for the season ahead, but we will never stop looking at ways to keep improving within our means. We’ll support Danny, the staff, and the players as much as we can as we aim to keep our standards as high as possible, beginning with Friday night’s home opener against Burnley at the John Smith’s Stadium.

Your support of the team will be as important to any success we have, as is always the case! When the first whistle goes on Friday, please get right behind the players. You all know how far our collective #TerrierSpirit can carry us, and we cannot lose sight of that. The number of you who have bought Season Cards for the new campaign is magnificent – and I cannot thank you enough for that – and we’ll need every single Town fan once again this season.

That’s it for now, other than to thank you one final time for your support. We couldn’t hold any of the old ‘Q&A’ sessions over the last 18 months due to the pandemic, but I plan to bring them back once the season is under way, probably from October. I look forward to seeing many of you then.

Thanks for reading – see you on Friday.

Dean