UK Edition
Huddersfield Town manager David Wagner left frustrated following 1-1 draw with Leicester City
Huddersfield Town’s head coach David Wagner has suggested that growing frustration involved in recruiting and retaining the best local young talent, under the Elite Player Performance Plan, led club owner Dean Hoyle to downgrade the club’s academy from category two to category four status.
By electing to operate with only under-18 and under-23 squads, Huddersfield will save around £1 million per season, which could be diverted to the first-team budget. Yet dispensing with the club’s under-eight to under-16 groups will come at a human cost, with around 140 young players and staff facing a cull just weeks into a new season.
Those in favour of maintaining the status quo would point towards the progress of 17-year-old full-back Jordan Williams and goalkeeper Ryan Schofield. Williams, an England Under-18 international on loan at Bury, made his Terriers debut in August, while Schofield starred in England’s Under-20 Toulon Tournament success in the summer. However, despite that, Wagner stressed it was exasperating and nigh-on impossible to fend off advances from other Premier League clubs interested in their players.
“This happens for a club of our size with a category two or category four academy,” Wagner said. “It’s Man City and Liverpool. We are not competitive academy wise with these football clubs. It’s something we have to accept.
“It is very difficult for football clubs like ours to produce first-team players – especially now when we are searching for Premier League players, because of the circumstances we have, with so many big competitors within 50 miles with great academies.
“The academy infrastructure we have compared to the others makes it so difficult. I know when Dean Hoyle makes decisions he thinks for a long time and he makes them in favour of this football club. If he thinks it right to go back to category four then I have so much trust and belief in him that this is the right decision.”
Another academy graduate, Philip Billing, was an unused substitute as Town were held to a 1-1 draw against Leicester on Saturday, largely because Elias Kachunga’s header was ruled out for offside, though television replays showed the forward was onside. Jamie Vardy had earlier equalised for Leicester from the penalty spot after Laurent Depoitre’s opener.
Vardy assumed the penalty duties from Riyad Mahrez and now has four goals this campaign, outlining his enduring value to a club who, according to winger Marc Albrighton, have “recovered” from their woes of last term.
“Everyone knows how important he is to us,” he said. “He’s confident at the minute and has a good record with penalties so the players have decided to let him take them.
“We let ourselves down last season. That was common knowledge and everyone had seen that but I think now we have recovered. It has been a tough start this season. This was our first dropped points against a team we feel like we should be beating.”