What are the odds? Don’t write Town off!
HUDDERSFIELD Town quite like being underestimated.
We can pretend it’s unique to their character if you like, but we practically guarantee you there are Manchester City players and fans who will insist they were ‘being written off’ earlier this season, however ridiculous that notion might be.
Only the most rampant narcissists see themselves as the overdog.
Still, the fact it’s a truism does not make it less true.
The gambler’s fallacy (‘the more times I lose the more likely I am to win the next one!’) may not be of any use to an actual gambler, but it can be for a sportsman.
Confidence and belief are just as powerful even when the logic from which it is derived fails to stand up to external scrutiny.
So we’re back to where we started: Huddersfield Town quite like being underestimated, and aside from Rotherham United, they are currently being written off the most of anyone – if the bookies’ odds are anything to go by, at least.
It’s hard to know whether that’s in defiance of or directly related to the ongoing wait for news on various fronts, most notably the club’s proposed takeover by Kevin Nagle and the pursuit of a long-term manager following the end of Neil Warnock’s hugely successful stint as a firefighter boss.
We suspect that ‘directly related’ is the answer, though, with the bookies reflecting what Town fans are already thinking: that it’s next to impossible to tell what the future holds at this stage.
For those in Kirklees, that uncertainty is valid cause for tentative excitement and optimism.
For the dispassionate bookies, such doubts are a reason to be, well, doubtful.
Where Town are distinct from the many other groups of fans who will crow about having been written off in the past is that they really have done great things out of nowhere.
The current promotion favourites Leicester City hold the all-time crown for that, of course; but Town’s two play-off finals in 2017 and 2022 came as a surprise even to them.
We can’t say we expect Town to be heading to Wembley again next year, and, in truth, until we see what happens with this takeover and the plans for what comes next, we can’t say we don’t think they’ll be in a relegation fight either – not yet, anyway.
What we do know is that as sickeningly platitudinous as it may be, Huddersfield Town enjoy showing people that you write them off at your own peril.