Chief Dean rightly talk of the Town
HUDDERSFIELD TOWN owner Dean Hoyle is quietly adding a splash of sanity to the Premier League’s money-making madness.
Town’s local-born, self-made benefactor provides a glimmer of hope for the have-nots of a competition that prices out poorer fans and betrays football’s working-class roots.
Put simply: Hoyle loves football. Loves the club he embraced from the old Leeds Road terraces. Requites that love by putting his fellow fans before profit.
The proof of this particular Yorkshire pudding lies in his amazing season-ticket bargains for Town’s first Premier League campaign.
Town’s most loyal fans, those continually buying season tickets from Hoyle’s 2008-09 arrival, paid a giveaway £100. Just £5.56p to see Town entertain giants such as Chelsea, Man City and United!
Other adult season tickets cost grateful fans only £199, while prices for under-eights were £29 and under-18s forked out just £79.
The Terriers manager David Wagner was rewarded with a handsome new contract, backed by Hoyle’s public pledge that his job is guaranteed even if the club go down. The rapport and trust between Wagner and Hoyle (above) is the foundation stone of Town’s impressive start as a Premier League club – on and off the field.
But Hoyle knows survival will be difficult.
Last term Town’s total wage bill was a paltry £11m – £4m less than Paul Pogba’s annual salary at Man U!
Tipped as relegation certainties, Town have forced pundits to rethink. Why? Aaron Mooy (below, with Wagner) is an influential midfield heartbeat. Steve Mounie, a powerful new spearhead. Both smart buys. Town’s summer spend of £40millionplus was, incredibly, the 10th highest net outlay in Europe.
Unbeaten, with no goals lost, they face troubled West Ham tomorrow night.
Hoyle should go there feeling proud. His altruistic standing with his own fan base was encapsulated by a banner at Town’s victorious homecoming after Wembley. Highlighting Hoyle’s image, it proclaimed: “Fit and Proper”.
Those three simple words express what’s right about Hoyle’s Huddersfield – and what’s wrong with much of the Premier League. Abdoulaye Doucoure’s 25-yard goal wrenched game into life after