David Taylor vs. Barry Rubery

Huddersfield Town story posted by Phill Rodgerson on 08/07/2001
Football.. it's a game of money. The big-money teams are the ones who survive these days and the amount of money in the game is increasing with each season. This is creating a split between the higher league clubs who have money and so can survive the game of Football and the lower league clubs who are unable to keep up and as a result have poorer teams.David Taylor vs. Barry Rubery

So why is this relevant to Town? Well, I think that this is a key stage in Town's and many other team's development in terms of what the future holds for them. Will Mr. Taylor gain the financial backing he requires to turn us back into a Division 1 outfit and possibily later on into the Premiership? Or are we doomed to linger around in Division 2 for a while just like Oldham Athletic who were one of the first ever teams to be included in the Premiership?

A thing we need to look at is, obviously, the current financial situation at Huddersfield. It's clear that for the last season the club has been running at a loss. The gates and merchandise sales just simply weren't enough to support the club's huge wage bill. This may have been alright if we had managed to keep our place in Division 1, but unfortunately it wasn't so.

So where does that leave us? In a lower league than anyone expected us to be with our main financial backer deciding it's not in his best interests to continue pumping money into the club and now wanting out. It appears to be a very dire situation indeed.. if it wasn't for Mr. Taylor that is.

It is questionable whether the introduction of David Taylor and his consortium of local businesses and fans will be the turning point for the club. Fans are split between whether Taylor is the man for the job or whether we'd have been better off with Rubery.

Now, there's no questioning where David Taylor's heart lies. It is soley within Huddersfield. He's as Huddersfield as you can get. And there's no denying that he has the sole best interests of the club in mind when making decisions. This is a great advantage for Town fans in comparison to Rubery who was a real business man at heart. He didn't really give two hoots about the club, all he cared was that he could make even more money. His plans fell through.

By not caring for the club in the same way as a Town fan would he managed to take us from the top of Division 1 on the verge of promotion to the 'Money League' right down to the depths of Division 2. He may have been a sound businessman but it takes more than a knowledge of business to compete in the world of Football and Barry's naivety showed through on many occasions. The main fault was there being no back-up plan should we fall into Division 2. His ultimate downfall.

Why do some Town fans think that if Rubery stayed we'd have been better off then? It all comes back down to one thing. And that's money. Rubery had bags of it at his disposal and David Taylor, well, he doesn't.

Barry Rubery could pump money into the club whenever it was needed, there was no doubt about that. The longer he stayed at the club, the less inclined he was to part with that money though. This was mainly because of the very poor signing's made by Steve Bruce. Anyone remember, Kwarmi Hodouto? Kiatsung Seamung? These kind of signing's made Rubery warey of giving his money away.

David Taylor, although with some good idea's that could possibly send the club rocketing to the top of Division 2 can not implement them without the cash. He's admitted to himself that this is a huge task. The club is already in huge debts, they're having to cut the wage bill of ?6million per annum. but have to do it to cater for the fans. They have to do it in a way that won't hinder the team and won't displease the fans. Not exactly an easy task.

There are rumours of Andy 'God' Booth on ?9,000 per week. A drain of nearly half a million per year on just one player. And not our best player at that. These rumours have also lead to speculation in The Yorkshire Post recently which stated that the club has to sell in order to keep Boothy. The key players are Dean Gorre, Kenny Irons and Chris Beech. Three midfield players. Which would leave very little back-up for the centre of midfield.

This leeaves David Taylor and Town in a very tricky predicament. He and his team have to strike a balance. It needs to be a balance of money and Football. He needs to make sure that the club is running at as little a cost as possible, and if possible to actually bring some money in at the same time. He also has to make sure that the team provided to Macari is doing well enough in the League and with that, please the fans.

It's not an admirable situation to be in admittedly. But David Taylor's the one in it and the future of our club could rest in his hands. Whether we go up next season could make or break us.

I leave you with that thought as I sign off with my second article. Remember to check here every day for my news updates. And remember that in them I notify you when I'll be writing my next article so check them out as well.

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Keep in mind, though, that I haven't proof read or even spell-checked this article. They don't matter for now but it will be checked for errors once being placed on the web site which will be up and running within about two weeks!

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it, and look out for further article's posted in the forum and in my articles section!

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