Huddersfield Town chairman Phil Hodgkinson has revealed that the Terriers need to lower their wage bill in the summer in a lengthy statement to supporters about the Terriers’ current situation.

The Terriers have been enduring a difficult period in their season over the last few weeks with Carlos Corberan’s side having gone six matches in the Championship without a win. However, despite that, they are still well placed in the table and are five points clear of the relegation zone.

Huddersfield managed to add to the squad in the January transfer window with the likes of Duane Holmes, Richard Keogh, Danny Grant, Rolando Aarons, Jayson Leutwiler and Sorba Thomas all brought into the club. While Ben Hamer and Adama Diakhaby left for undisclosed fees. The Terriers are facing a summer rebuild with around 12 players set to be out of contract come the end of the campaign.

In his statement to supporters on the Terriers’ official club website, Hodgkinson outlined that Huddersfield’s current wage bill remains too high for them to sustain moving forwards. While he also hinted at the number of players out of contract in the summer and suggested that it represents a chance for a rebuilding of the wage structure and squad.

He wrote: “Our constant aim is to improve the squad in every window; that will continue to be the case. However, we also must be aware of our finances. I’ve spoken before about our desire and need to make our club as sustainable as possible and that remains the aim.

“As I write this, our wage bill sits above £19million for the year. Moving forward, that figure is unsustainable. For comparison, we got promoted in 2017 on a wage bill that was nearer £12 million.

“This summer is a big moment in terms of the playing squad, as we have many players out of contract. We are already taking stock of what we need to do to give Carlos an improved squad, and to ensure we get full value for what we pay out in wages.”

The verdict

It does seem like it is going to be a huge summer for the Terriers, and it is vital that they manage to ensure they avoid dropping out of the Championship to rebuild and reorganise the playing squad. The revelation over the size of the club’s wage bill shows how huge the financial gaps are between the Premier League and Championship and how much relegation to the second tier impacts things.

Huddersfield have worked hard since their relegation to trim the wage bill down with a number of high earners having left the club, it is therefore surprising that there is still such a large wage bill hovering over the Terriers. However, it seems that a lot of the out of contract players might be moved on in the summer to free up room for Corberan to improve his squad on a tighter budget.

The Terriers have already proven they can still achieve success on a smaller budget as they did in their 2016/17 promotion-winning campaign. That it seems is the model that they are hoping to go back to starting this forthcoming summer. What that means for a host of the out of contract players is that they will probably be moved on. So it will be interesting to see who is kept from that group.