TERRIERS UP THE MOUNTAIN

I have been up a mountain today and Huddersfield Town FC are climbing the Premier League "mountain" as I type. The West Yorkshire town has been cock-a-hoop since winning their promotional play off last season and much has been invested in the John Smith's Stadium over the past few months.

It is a long time since Town took three First Division championships in 1926, 1927 and 1928. Between 1922 and 1928 the club was not out of the top three positions in the highest English division.
Throw in an odd cup final or two this was their greatest period under the eye of the famous Hebert Chapman, who of course went on to greater things at Arsenal.

Huddersfield sunk to the lowly Division Four in 1975-6 and managed to get out of the mire in 1979-80. From 2001 there was a gentle climb through the tiers reaching League One in 2004-5 and gaining promotion to the Championship in 2012-13.

Managers have come and gone, including Shankly, MacDonald, Bruce, Macari, Grayson and Robins-to name a few. I daren't count the number of managers employed by the club in the past twenty years.

Promotion to the PL has now happened. So well done to the "Card Factory" man Dean Hoyle and his massive investment. What a nice chap. Congratulations also to David Wagner, an ex-USA international footballer, but German by birth, who took over from Chris Powell in 2015. Since then it has been unprecedented success for the Terriers. They have climbed the mountain and now they have to keep on the peak!

The elevated position has led to much expenditure by the club to meet required standards but of course there will be increased revenue now that the top teams in the country will be visiting the Kirklees town. And who knows maybe even European clubs will be joining in soon?

Whatever the club gains from the PL payments; TV facilities, possible parachute payments, there will be extra costs. Obviously the squad has to be improved ££££, grass lighting rigs are needed to help grass growth between matches (remember the Giants play rugby league there also). There are 32 pages of PL rules to be adhered to: eg goal line technology is sited, changing rooms must be a minimum of 30 sq.m., the pitch must be 108m x 68m, 14 media locations are needed, they have to include special rooms for drug tests, security, mix zones (press interviews etc), the British TV companies get 3 seats each in the stadium, foreign TV companies only 2! IT connectivity must be secured....need I go on?

It has been a promising start at Selhurst Park where the Town has taken Crystal Palace to the cleaners beating them 3-0. So they must be top of the PL tonight.