Huddersfield Town chairman Dean Hoyle admitted that most of the Terriers' promotion-winning heroes would have been sold had they not gone up to the top flight last year.
Town were promoted to the top flight for the first time in 45 years last season, with head coach David Wagner masterminding the greatest campaign in most Town fans' lifetime.
But it took a "perfect storm" to get them to the promised land, with the owner suggesting he may have sold the club if they did not go up last season.
He said: "The alternative is we probably would have been seriously looking for new owners, because I would have at that point thought I'd have taken the club as far as I could.
"I knew it was a perfect storm and for us to compete and get into the top flight, you've got to spend a lot more money than we did, so we really had no right to do it.
"It was David Wagner who said that first, we had no right - and he is not wrong.
"If we hadn't have got promoted then I'm sure half our squad would have been sold, because firstly the manager would have gone, and you can't blame him, can you?
"Secondly, a lot of our players have excelled and some would have gone to big-paying Championship clubs we can't compete with.
"Some would have gone to the Premier League, and others maybe back to Germany for big money.
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"That's why when we got promoted, it was so important that penalty went in - it changed this club forever in a short period."
You can read more exclusive interviews with Hoyle - as well as David Wagner and the Town players - in " Underdog ", which is out now at book stores and the Huddersfield Town club shops.
