Premier Identity: Chelsea Giants, Huddersfield Davids

Luke Dempsey
Aug 28, 2017 · 4 min read

Football isn’t about the game itself. Football is a romance, a journey, and a story. There has always been more to the beautiful game than 22 people kicking a ball around. In modern football, the tales and emotions are often lost in the fog of nine figure sums of money and retweets. After almost 20 years of watching the beautiful game, and following the narratives and drama of the sport, I feel it high time to explore the game we all know and love in a different light.

Straight from the eyes and mind of a sports addict comes the overly detailed and probably inconsequential bios of all the Premier League teams.

Chelsea:

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Vilified and loathed by all other fans, Chelsea is the heel of the Premier League. Say what you will about a team that un-apologetically bought their way to relevance, but be wise to know that there is a great deal more to this club than an open checkbook.

A semi derelict stadium, with a football pitch surrounded by a greyhound racing dog-track. A team that was bought for the vast sum of £1. That was Chelsea football club in 1982. For every rags to riches storyline in modern football, it must be remembered that today’s affluent London Giants were once on the verge of collapse. Through the 1990s and 2000s Chelsea were always a steady team, capable of FA Cup success any year. They were a team of foreign talents, with Vialli, Hasslebaink, Zola, and Gullit some of the incredible showmen among them. They were the odd, quirky team that would undoubtedly be the hipster's choice were they to exist today.

In June 2003, the club, and subsequently the League changed dramatically. Roman Abramovich, Russian billionaire oligarch, bought the club. He then subsequently bought everything he could to transform Chelsea into the giant that it is today. Chelsea changed the game, and set the pathway for clubs to use the checkbook to reach success. Perhaps however a rising tide lifts all boats, as with a competitor for Arsenal and Manchester United, the league’s prestige grew.

Chelsea’s modernization and success has been a cornerstone in the evolution of the Premier League. Foreign investors is now common, and all teams seem unafraid to spend big to reach success. Many football purists will have been irritated to see Abramovich’s plan succeed, but in truth it has been instrumental in making the league what it is today, which is sports greatest weekly show.

Huddersfield

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For most football aficionados, and all casual fans, Huddersfield’s opening salvo at Crystal Palace was the first time even thinking about the Premier League’s new boys. But history has a way of creating connections everywhere. Huddersfield AFC are no different. Long before being late night lower league football highlight fodder, Huddersfield was a team that molded the formative years of many a football legend. With the likes of Mounie leading the charge, and the popular David Wagner directing from the dugout, we could all be bearing witness to the molding of legends again.

Every five or ten years, a manager leaves a permanent stamp on football as we know it. Guardiola, Klopp, Ferguson, and Wenger have changed the game as we know it, but long before them, managers revolutionized the game in even greater ways. One of the original innovators, Harold Chapman, legendary tactician who managed Arsenal in the 20s and 30s, learnt his craft as manager of Huddersfield. Bill Shankly, the godfather of Liverpool lead Huddersfield before becoming a legend on Merseyside. Huddersfield was also the graduation school of talent on the pitch. Dennis Law, considered as one of the true greats of Manchester United, was so visibly gifted as a youngster with the Terriers that both Busby and Shankly wanted to bring them to their mighty clubs.

Hopefully Huddersfield continue to be a proving ground for new ideas and ways. In particular with how a Premier League should treat their loyal local fans. In 2010, the Chairman of the club made a promise to season ticket holders that if they were to make it to the Premier League that a season ticket would only cost them £100. He kept that promise. Let’s hope that just like the great legends of the game that found their feet at the club, that an idea from Huddersfield can also be a worldwide game-changer.

They may be new and unknown, but Huddersfield clearly have their own honest, unique identity. Let’s all hope that their identity will be a permanent fixture in a Premier League that’s sometimes devoid of uniqueness.

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Luke Dempsey

Written by

Spewing useless information about football for your pleasure/ agony

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