WENGER TO EXTEND
Gunners boss set to sign new deal
his contract expires next month.
The 67-year-old has been heavily criticised this season, with Arsenal fans calling for his resignation after their team failed to q u a l i f y f o r t h e Ch a m p i o n s League for the first time in 20 years.
Suggestions that Arsenal may insist on hiring a director of football to work with Wenger had sparked claims he was considering ending his 21-year reign.
“It’s huge what it means for Huddersfield, we’re on the big stage.”
Hoyle, who has been on the board since 2008 and chairman and majority shareholder since June 2009, said it showed you didn’t need to spend big to rise to the top league — their pay roll is just £12million.
“It proves you don’t have to blow your brains to get promoted. We’ve done it the right way,” he said.
“It’s our turn. We deserve it because of the way we’ve done it.
“We can give lots of people hope, smaller clubs that keep believing — you can achieve the impossible.”
Huddersfield manager David Wagner, an inspired choice when he was plucked from coaching Borussia Dortmund’s reserve team in November 2015, said he was delighted he and the team had disproved the critics.
“A lot of the pundits wrote us off before the season,” said the 45-year-old German-born former United States international.
“Over the season I thought we could do a little bit more, I thought around Christmas when we’d played everyone we had a chance.
“What happened is an unbelievable story — a fairytale.
“I am so happy because when I arrived people said I had no experience, no experience of British football, no experience of players — I always had to fight against that.
“It’s proved experience is important but not everything. It’s heart and desire,” added Wagner, who was at one point thought more likely to be assistant to close friend and Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp.
Wagner’s compatriot Michael Hefele, who was signed from Dynamo Dresden in July last year, said for such a club to be in the Premier League was surreal.
“This has nothing to do with a dream. This is a reality,” the 26year-old defender who can also play up front told Sky Sports.
“These guys have achieved such a big thing — such a small club to be in the best league in the world. Just crazy.”