Dean Hoyle provides update on Huddersfield Town finances and why Lewis O'Brien and Harry Toffolo were sold

HUDDERSFIELD TOWN chief executive officer Dean Hoyle has dismissed suggestions that the club have sold star players to reduce the level of loans put into the club by him.

Hoyle issued a comprehensive update on Town's financial position to address on the eve of the new season and addressed the current situation regarding his takeover of Phil Hodkingson's 75 per cent majority share in the club and the recent departure of Carlos Corberan.

Hodkingson resigned from the Town board in late February.

Speaking back in January, Hoyle revealed that he had ploughed in millions of pounds into the club late last year to prevent the spectre of administration.

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Dean HoyleDean Hoyle
Dean Hoyle

Hoyle, who already owns a 25 per cent stake in the club, took over as interim CEO following the departure of Mark Devlin last December - having been involved in the day-to-day running of the club again last mid-autumn, with Hodgkinson absent from club duties since November after several of his businesses entered administration.

He says that he has put an 'eight figure sum' into the club since being back involved to help pay for running costs and creditor payments.

Hoyle said: "Firstly, the process of acquiring back 100% of the shares in the Club is still ongoing.

"It’s simply that these things take time. For example, you must apply to the Financial Conduct Authority when there is a change of control in a club, and there is a backlog following the pandemic.

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"What I can say is that it has not impacted negatively on the day-to-day running of the Club; I’m at the John Smith’s Stadium and the Millers Oils High Performance Complex daily and its simply business as usual. I will update you all on any significant changes on the process when they occur.

As the person at the top, I do not - and cannot - make decisions in order to be popular. It is my responsibility to make decisions that are the best ones for Huddersfield Town. A good example of such a decision was the change we made to our Academy in September 2017; we knew it would not be immediately well received, but I believe we are now seeing the benefits of that change.

"I do feel it’s important to clarify the club’s financial position, as I’m aware there has been a lot of conjecture on the matter recently.

"It’s been well documented that I came back into the club last October. Since then, to this day, I have put an eight-figure sum into the club. That has covered the club’s ongoing costs and has straightened out legacy club creditor payments that were overdue."

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Town have sanctioned the big-money dual departure of Lewis O'Brien and Harry Toffolo earlier this month for a £10m fee and Hoyle has sought to explain the reasoning behind that.

"Without any player trading, the club – with its current wage bill – stands to lose circa £10 million per season," he added.

"That figure has gone up since I was last 100 per cent owner and the club was in the Championship because of the additional staffing, resource, and general Premier League-standard setup at the Millers Oils High Performance Complex. I have no issue with that at all, because we’ve seen the benefit of it on the pitch.

"There are different options to mitigate that loss. We could increase prices of items such as season cards, we could reduce the wage bill or reduce the costs of the first team provision at the training ground.

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"However, I’ve decided not to take any of those options because we don’t want to reduce ‘bums on seats’ and we want to be as competitive as possible on the pitch. In order to be as competitive as we saw last season with a low wage bill, we have to maintain the support structure, staffing and wider support network at the training ground and the increased costs that brings. That all goes hand-in-hand. This is our model.

"As a result, we must mitigate those costs by trading players. We already had guaranteed money coming in over the next four years from the sale of Karlan Grant, and now we have additional funds over the same period from the sales of Lewis O’Brien and Harry Toffolo.

"That will take the club’s annual losses down to around £5 million per season over the next four years, without any further sales or incoming transfers.

"Without any further player trading, that is the amount I must put into the club. When that money needs to be put in during the season is always fluid, and dependent on our cash flow, but that will be the final figure.

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"I want to be very clear with this next point – the idea that we sell players only to reduce the level of my loans is totally incorrect. The level of my loans today is the same as the season before we gained promotion to the Premier League, which is not an insignificant sum.

"As an owner, this is my duty to the club - and my will to do so.

"It’s also important to reiterate that this club will always be one that trades players, in and out. It needs to be to service the football costs that will allow us to be competitive at this level.

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