It’s seems like only two minutes since we were celebrating Huddersfield Town’s successful survival in the Premier League.
Apart from the ‘Big 6’, success is simply staying in the Premier League for the other 14 teams.
Funnily enough, I did see that Manchester City were 5000/1 to be relegated and, as we all know, a few years ago Leicester City were 5000/1 to win the Premier League. Look what happened!
Sometimes the unbelievable does occur and leaves us all scratching our heads.
Town’s promotion and then staying in the Premier League are mini-miracles in themselves.
What David Wagner and the board have managed to do is something to celebrate, but definitely not something to settle for.
Now is the time to kick on.
If truth be told, I would have liked to have seen an extra few signings coming in, but deadline day is no longer the end of the month.
It is a ridiculous situation where the Premier League have pretty much handcuffed themselves while the rest of Europe continues to trade.
But that is a discussion for another day.
The one thing the players and fans of Huddersfield Town must do, from Day One, is turn up and mirror exactly what they did last year.
The intensity must be there on the pitch and in the stands.
Even 1% less than last year won’t be good enough.
I can’t emphasise this enough, because it was so much a combination of everyone at the club last season pulling together to keep Town in the Premier League – and it paid off.
With a couple of excellent early results, we were soon enjoying the experience. That might be a bit more difficult this season because of what the fixtures have thrown at us, but we do now have the knowledge of what to expect.
My big worry is simply goals, and where they are going to come from.
In the league, seven for Mounie, six for Depoitre, four for Mooy and three for Van La Parra and then it falls off a cliff.
I honestly don’t know where the goals are going to come from, but hopefully someone – or more than one – will pop up and surprise us all.
Adama Diakhaby from Monaco and Ramadan Sobhi from Stoke City could be exciting signings, but let’s be honest, we don’t know what they are going to do and we need them to perform and produce.
I would have liked to have seen Adama Traore brought in from Middlesbrough, but he has gone to Wolves.
But, with the big kick-off just hours away, this is no time for negativity.
We will all look on hoping the players can improve on last season, and it would be nice to see Alex Pritchard really step up and deliver a double-figure goal tally.
Defensively, it will be difficult for Christopher Schindler to improve much on last year – he was superb – and Terence Kongolo and Mathias Jorgensen are, between them, pretty solid.
The full backs on both sides need to improve, because while they are given free rein to get forward in David Wagner’s set-up, not a single goal came from them last season.
If Mounie can add Depoitre’s desire to his game, and start trying to turn bad possession into good, creating something from nothing, then I would hope he could better his seven goals at top level.
Mounie has the technical ability to be a top striker, but a bit more fire in the belly wouldn’t go amiss, and that’s something which his friend Depoitre has in spades.
