2009/10 to 2017/18

Huddersfield Town spent one of the nine seasons from 2009/10 to 2017/18 in the Premier League and five in the Championship, with three lower down. Their best finish was 16th, in 2017/18. They didn’t win a major trophy. Over those nine summers they paid £44.2m in transfer fees and took in £21.1m, a net spend of £23m.

Huddersfield Town reached the Championship for 2012/13 and spent four seasons trying not to leave it through the wrong door: 19th, 17th, 16th and 19th again. Then, in 2016/17, everything clicked. Fifth place, a play-off final won on penalties against Reading, and a first top-flight season since the early 1970s. They finished 16th in 2017/18 and stayed up.

The money that followed was spent carefully. Aaron Mooy, on loan the season before, joined permanently from Manchester City for £8m, alongside Steve Mounié from Montpellier and Tom Ince from Derby. Earlier, Jordan Rhodes had left for Blackburn for £8m in 2012, and Conor Coady went to Wolves in 2015.

Town begin this story in League One, and the real climb took eight seasons. With £900m, the 115.football aim is to arrive sooner, with Rhodes still scoring the goals and Coady still in the side.