Huddersfield aiming to repeat a trick of recent history with improbable Championship play-offs glory
Huddersfield spotted the symmetries with long ago and felt the omens were encouraging. They were FA Cup winners in 1922, the road to glory beginning by beating Burnley. A century on, they began their FA Cup campaign by beating Burnley again, but their run only took them as far as Nottingham Forest in the fifth round.
Instead of revisiting ancient history, however, they may repeat the recent past. Perhaps the most surprising promotion to the Premier League of the last decade came in 2017 when Huddersfield, tipped for obscurity at best and relegation at worst after finishing 19th the previous season, emerged as play-off winners. Fast forward five years and Huddersfield, tipped for obscurity at best and relegation at worst after finishing 20th last season, face Luton in the play-off semi-finals.
“There’s quite a lot of staff that were there and they say it is similar, how well we have done in both seasons. There is a view in the air we can go and do something special again,” said Ollie Turton. The versatile former Crewe and Blackpool player joined last summer unsure what lay ahead. “The previous season obviously wasn’t successful; I don’t know what the expectations were,” he admitted, but surely not this.
Huddersfield leapt from 49 points to 82. They almost doubled their tally of wins and more than halved the number of defeats, The Championship is the division where cliché has it that anyone can beat anyone but, for a 16-match run, no one could beat Huddersfield. “You don’t go into any games in the Championship thinking it is going to be a walkover so a lot of hard work has gone into that,” said Turton. A side that finished 2020-21 with two wins in 17 matches ended this league campaign with only two losses in 26. “That long run of form where we went unbeaten makes you think we could do something,” he added.
He is a symbolic figure. Manager Carlos Corberan is a former assistant of Marcelo Bielsa’s and, like the Argentinian, can swap system according to the opposition’s tactics. Turton’s ability to play right-back and centre-back facilitates that adaptability. “It was one of the points at the start of the season that we wanted to be flexible as a team, to be able to go into games with a different look and change formations,” he explained.
But he also reflects a transfer policy that has propelled them to the brink of the Premier League. Not for the first time, some of Huddersfield’s deals have been so low profile they have been subterranean. They have also been hugely effective.
Five years ago, manager David Wagner and head of football operations Stuart Webber raided the German second tier astutely. Now the English third flight has proved fertile territory. “I played in League One for a number of seasons and I know for a fact there are some really good players in that league,” said Turton, who won promotion with Blackpool in his ninth campaign at that level.
There are other exiles from the third tier. Goalkeeper Lee Nicholls was released by MK Dons; in his debut campaign at Huddersfield, he was named in the EFL Team of the Year. “He has had an unbelievable year,” said Turton. “He has earned us a lot of points.” The goalscoring left-back Harry Toffolo came from Lincoln. The influential midfielder Lewis O’Brien, a former target of Bielsa, first tasted first-team football on loan at Bradford.
Huddersfield have looked still further down the pyramid. Sorba Thomas came from non-league Boreham Wood and finished his first full year in Yorkshire with 15 assists and as a Wales international. “When I joined I didn’t really know too much [about him],” Turton said. Few others knew, either. “But from day one, I knew he was a really good player.”
It is a success of strategic planning. “It is all to do with the recruitment and knowing what player they want and doing their homework as much as they can,” added Turton.
“They have been very clever with it and it has paid off with the season we have had.” Huddersfield pocketed a profit last summer, selling Juninho Bacuna to Rangers, signing free transfers and loans and transforming their team.
There is another nod to the past. In 2016-17, Huddersfield were savvy borrowers from the Premier League, loaning goalkeeper Danny Ward from Liverpool and midfielder Aaron Mooy from Manchester City. Now the precocious Chelsea teenager Levi Colwill has been a revelation in defence. “He has got a massive career ahead of him,” said Turton. “I don’t know what I was doing at 18 years old but I definitely wasn’t doing what he is doing.”
Some, perhaps, always seem likely to be fast-tracked to the top. Turton, who had made 355 career appearances before featuring in the second flight, took a different path. “If you had said a couple of years ago I would be in the Championship play-offs, I probably would have said: ‘No chance,’” he admitted.
A dream could become a reality. For a Mancunian who is married to a City fan, a meeting with Pep Guardiola’s side would carry particular meaning.
And for a club who seemed likelier to return to League One than the Premier League, perhaps promotion could come courtesy of their graduates from the third tier.
