Huddersfield Town’s rise to promotion hopefuls

Promotion to the Premier League is the dream for every EFL club but it can quickly turn into a nightmare as has been experienced by many clubs in the aftermath of relegation from the top flight.

Huddersfield Town reached the promised land of the Premier League in the 2016-17 campaign under David Wagner and managed to stay up in their first season against all the odds before suffering relegation back to the Championship in the 2018-2019 season.

Players and managers have come and gone since relegation from the Premier League and budgets have been seriously reduced.

Recovering from the setback of relegation from the Premier League has been tough for Huddersfield back in the Championship with the club involved in relegation battles in the last two seasons.

Tipped as one of the favourites to be relegated before a ball was even kicked this season, Huddersfield have confounded bookies and pundits alike to be in the hunt for promotion back to the Premier League.

After last night’s (Wednesday’s) victory over Cardiff City, the Terriers moved up to fourth in the Championship table. Last weekend, Huddersfield stunned the Championship to pick up a 2-1 win at runaway leaders Fulham.

Huddersfield are flying the flag for Yorkshire in the FA Cup as the only remaining team from the county in the fifth round of the famous old competition.

The hard work on and off the pitch in the last 18 months is now beginning to reap its rewards under Head Coach Carlos Corberan and Head of Football Operations Leigh Bromby.

Former Leeds United assistant coach Corberan arrived in the summer of 2020 and after a difficult and transitional first season in charge is now showing why he is so highly rated in coaching circles.

Huddersfield showed great faith and loyalty in Corberan in the second half of last season when there were calls for his head after a dramatic downturn in form which saw them win only three games between January and May sending the club perilously close to the relegation zone.

However, despite the slump in results there was no panic or knee-jerk reactions from Bromby and the Huddersfield board who remained resolute to the project and showed support to Coberan.

As head of Football Operations Bromby is celebrating two years in the role after initially joining Huddersfield as a coach of the Under-18s in 2014 before becoming Academy manager in January 2018.

During his time at club Bromby has witnessed the highs and lows of promotion and relegation and in his current role he has been responsible for overseeing a huge change on and off the pitch.

Bromby has managed a huge overhaul in finances at Huddersfield, helping the club recover from the dangerous financial pitfalls of relegation from the Premier League to ensure staying within a model of sustainability.

While his role at Huddersfield was not only limited to recruitment, Bromby oversaw the arrivals of a number of success stories in the transfer market, including the signings of Lee Nicholls, Matty Pearson, Tom Lees and an on-loan Levi Colwill for a combined cost of nothing in transfer fees.

The club have been forced to be savvy in the transfer market dealing mainly in the frees and loans market and forging good relations with Premier League clubs allowing them to take Colwill and Tino Anjorin from European champions Chelsea.

Sorba Thomas is another success story after being spotted and snapped up from National League club Boreham Wood last January with the winger going on to establish himself as one of the best young players in the EFL and break into the Wales squad.

The club’s recruitment team have illustrated they have got an eye for a player and that is enabling Coberan to build a squad capable of challenging clubs with a lot bigger budgets than Huddersfield in an ultra competitive Championship.

Not many outside observers expected Huddersfield to be in the promotion mix at this stage of the season, but optimism is high within the club and its supporters that the heady days experienced under the stewardship of Wagner could again be on the horizon.

Huddersfield have upset the odds before to win promotion to the Premier League and on current form you would not bet against them repeating the trick come the end of the season.

Written by PETER O’ROURKE