SIMON GRAYSON is close to announcing Huddersfield Towns retained list as he starts detailed planning for life in the Championship.
He will hold briefings with his players today and have a series of meetings with chairman Dean Hoyle and chief executive Nigel Clibbens as the week goes on.
"I will be talking with my management staff, with Nigel and Dean and meeting the players both as a group and individually," explained Grayson, whose promotion-winning squad were hailed by fans as they had an open-top bus tour to a Town Hall civic reception last night.
"There will certainly be a retained list coming out soon and sorting that out is difficult for a manager.
"You have just seen a group of players get promoted and yet there have been tough decisions taken on their futures.
"It's not always a nice thing, but it's one you have to deal with as a manager to take the club to the next level."
Watch a post-match video of Huddersfield Town chairman Dean Hoyle: Wembley win is all for our fans
Grayson believes Town can build following the dramatic League I play-off final success against Sheffield United at Wembley. "I'm delighted we have achieved this for the chairman, Dean Hoyle, because he has put everything into the football club, added the boss.
"He has now got the just rewards he has been looking for and hopefully we can progress and take the club forward, because that's what attracted me to Huddersfield Town when I first spoke to him about coming in as manager."
So what needs to happen in reshaping the squad for competition in what looks a tough and exciting Championship in 2012-13?
"I don't want to put numbers on it in terms of how many we need to bring in, but we need to strengthen", he answered.
"You have to strengthen every year as a football club in any case, whichever division you are in, and it has to be said the Championship looks a great division next season and we need players capable of playing there.
"The first objective is to survive, obviously, but that doesnt mean to say we can't go on and have a really good season.
"Some teams have gone up and then gone straight up again and, while I'm not saying we are going to do that, I'm working for an ambitious chairman who wants to take the club forward in the right way."
Huddersfield Town players and management celebrate as they win the play-off final (Gallery)
Just three months after being sacked by Leeds, Grayson says the Elland Road game will be one he's looking out for when the fixtures are announced on Monday, June 18.
"It will be special to go back there and it will be one of the first fixtures I look for, but you only get the same three points for the match at Leeds as you do for any other", he said.
"There are some fantastic derbies on the agenda next season with the likes of Sheffield Wednesday, Hull, Barnsley and, of course, Leeds, and the Championship is basically a Northern stroke Midlands division, which is fantastic for Huddersfield Town.
"We will be playing to big crowds week in, week out and thats great for the football club and great for the fans."
Town players who are out of contract are Ian Bennett, Aidan Chippendale, Nick Colgan, Danny Cadamarteri, Nathan Clarke, Tom Clarke, Alan Lee, Tommy Miller, Gary Naysmith and Gary Roberts.
There are suggestions in Carlisle that Brunton Park boss Greg Abbott is showing an interest in at least one of them, with Cadamarteri linked in the past.
Huddersfield Town promoted at Wembley: Full list of videos, galleries and stories (Click here)
