'Better resourced and smarter' Huddersfield Town is aim for 'new' chief executive Mark Devlin

Devlin was handed the job permanently on Tuesday having held the post as an interim since January.

“The club is bigger than I anticipated, the number of season card holders and staff, particularly over at Canalside, and you can see the great set-up at the training ground,” said Devlin, who held the same post at Championship rivals Brentford.

Devlin joined at a time of great change for the Terriers, who are adjusting to life back in the Football League after two seasons as a Premier League club.

Their Canalside training ground is being revamped, as is the management of the club. Danny Cowley took over as manager in September, and Leigh Bromby began his new job as head of football operations on Monday, with Emyr Humphreys replacing him as academy manager. Huddersfield initially wanted Cowley as their head coach, but he insisted on the job title of manger, and is using the coronavirus lockdown to further work on his plans to change the way the football side is run.

“It will be one of the best training complexes outside the Premier League,” said Devlin. “Huddersfield Town will have a training facility we can be very proud of. The place of work we’ve provided for the players and the skills we have down there will be excellent.

“I’ve been working on the football side on how we can make the training ground better and the structure of our football department, so looking at how we can be better resourced and smart in the way we operate there.

“Away from football, I’ve been looking at how we can generate more revenue into the club. Particularly, when you don’t own the stadium.

“We have to be smarter in terms of our commercial output.

“We now have to use the time we’ve got in this crisis to reshape the business.

“I’m still working on those plans at the moment as we are potentially looking at bringing in no revenue until the end of this year, in terms of potentially playing football in stadiums with no fans.”

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