Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
WHY HUDD ALWAYS RULES MY HEART
Dean Hoyle on the rise of the Yorkshire club, the drama of that Wembley play-off and why David Wagner is only his SECOND favourite manager
BOSS David Wagner is unsackable in Dean Hoyle’s eyes because he has taken Huddersfield to the Premier League.
But as much as Hoyle loves Wagner, he will never replace Mick Buxton (right) as his Huddersfield hero. Buxton is the reason why he was sitting yesterday, smiling alongside Wagner as the 100 per cent owner and chairman of Premier League Huddersfield. That’s because Hoyle fell in love with the Terriers as a 12-year-old during their 1979-80 Fourth Division title-winning season under Buxton. That enduring passion led to him buying the club in 2009, and breaking down in tears in May when Christopher Schindler scored that spot-kick to win promotion to the top fight for the first time in 45 years. “I can remember my first game on the terraces at Leeds Road,” he said. “I think it was versus Hartlepool, the last game of ’80. “It was everything about it, it was the promotion season and it just got me hooked. “The football, Mally Brown going down the wing – everything about it was fantastic, similar to last season. We played great football and got promoted. “After Wembley, I rang Mick Buxton, who was my idol. In years to come, people will say it’s Wagner, but for me it’s Mick. “I said to him, ‘Mick, thank you very much’. He said, ‘Why, what have I done?’ I said, ‘If it wasn’t for you getting me hooked in ’79 I would never have had the best day of my life’.” Hoyle went through hell before his moment of ecstasy when Schindler (right) scored the deciding kick in the penalty shoot-out win over Reading in the play-off final, because he knew the stakes were huge. Not only was £170million on the line, but the futures of Wagner and Town’s best players. “I thought this is our moment in time, our opportunity,” he said. “I knew even though our fans might have said we can go again next season and have another crack at it, realistically, I knew when Schindler stepped up, it was now or never. “If that penalty hadn’t gone in, we probably would have lost David and some of our players. “So when it went in, it was incredible. I had to get away from the cameras. “I looked down and there was a void and I knew I just had to get out of the way. My wife Janet gave me a good kicking when I got down there, but I just needed to reflect for 45 seconds. “It was a real emotional thing and I still can’t believe I’m the chairman of this club that has achieved Premier League football. “That evening I said to Schindler, ‘Chris, why did you take the last penalty, I’ve never seen you take a penalty before?’ And he said, ‘You paid more money for me than you’ve paid for anyone else, so I had a duty to do it’. I started crying again and I suppose that’s why Germans take penalties!” Hoyle, 50, who reportedly made £350m when he sold his greetings card and gift company the Card Factory in 2010, is determined to have a real crack at the Premier League. He hasn’t had a holiday because he has been busy tying Wagner down on a two-year deal, assuring the German he will stand by him if they are relegated. “Me and David have an understanding. Regardless of what happens this season, David will be our manager at the end of the season,” he said. Hoyle has also smashed the club’s transfer record three times, shelling out a total of £22.5m for Steve Mounie, Aaron Mooy and Laurent Depoitre. He says Huddersfield will do things the “Yorkshire way”, vowing he would never endanger the club’s future by spending recklessly. “We’re not going to be ridiculous,” he said. “We’re going to keep within our limits, but we do recognise we’re now playing on a different level and things have got to go northwards. “But we need to manage the downside. We’re always mindful of that because it’s all about legacy and whatever happens in the future, the legacy is intact.”