News Articles > Will Boyle re-signs and how he confirms the clear change in transfer strategy

Will Boyle re-signs and how he confirms the clear change in transfer strategy

08/06/2022

William Boyle has been announced as Huddersfield's first transfer for the 2022-23 Championship season. Town has continued their strategy of signing former players, with Boyle having made 2 appearances in his first spell at the club, between 2015 and 2017. Boyle a product of Huddersfield's academy originally joined the club in 2010, having played grassroots football up to that age.

The 6ft3 defender joins on a 2 year deal with the club holding the option of a further season. The left-footed centre half made 196 appearances for Cheltenham in a 5 and half year spell. Boyle was club captain at Cheltenham where he was also named in the Sky Bet League 2 team of the season in 2020-21.

What type of player is Boyle

A tall solid defender who you know is going to give his all for the badge each week. He is a goalscoring centre back, 26 goals and 8 assists in 196 games is a great return for a player whose main job is preventing goals. Boyle is nowhere near Colwill's level of ball-playing ability, and a downgrade on Sarr's, but he is a player that would run through a brick wall, a no-nonsense centre-half.

My only reservation with Boyle is his injury record, he only played more than 40 games in a season in all competitions twice in the 5 years he was at Cheltenham. So he is a player that the medical team are going to have to monitor.

Is Boyle a better option than if Town retained Sarr?

It was announced that Naby Sarr would leave Huddersfield Town after he endured what can only be described as an excitement-filled spell with the club. The decision to release Sarr may have turned a few heads, especially considering as he featured in all 3 of Huddersfield's playoff fixtures.

I think under Carlos there were clear improvements for players such as: Danny Ward, Ollie Turton, Duane Holmes etc, but didn't really see the same improvement for Sarr. Town emphasised nutrition and strength + conditioning and that along with the improvements in players' ability is what caused our promotion push last season, seemingly out of nowhere.

Sarr would also have been on a high amount compared to the rest of the bench players at Town, and for that reason along with him showing little improvements in his game in his time at Town - which to be fair to him was a decent, but inconsistent level, they chose to bring someone else in. It would be a fair prediction to think that Boyle would be on less than what Sarr was earning, while also being hungrier, since he has a lot to prove at this level. It is a risk since he has only played one season at League One level, but as long as he is just backup, it is a tidy signing.

A clear shift in transfer strategy

During Carlos Corberan's first summer transfer window transfer window, 4 out of the 6 signings had played in a European Competition. If you compare that with last summer, only 1 of the 9 initial first team signings - 10 if you count Jon Russell, had made a European appearance. Then if you consider that Turton, Ruffels, Pearson and Nicholls had all made over 250 appearances upon signing and Rhodes and Lees had over 500 appearances, and for all of which they were in the English game. Now compare that with the summer before, Sarr had just over 150 appearances, Ward had over 350 appearances, Pipa, Pereira and Eiting hadn't even hit 40 senior appearances and Vallejo just over 100.

Last summer was deemed a more successful window than the previous summer, and I think it can be said that the shift from players who came through top European academies to players who had been there and done the hard graft to rack up the appearances. Following the success that Town endured with this model last season, Town seem to have continued with it, with Boyle certainly fitting this criteria. As seen last season between Colwill and Lees, Colwill was deemed as the 'better' defender out of the pair, but in my opinion, Lees had the better season. I think this is mainly down to Lees having 500 odd games of experience to Colwill's 0. So although Colwill has the higher ceiling, Lees provided the important consistent base line. The signing of Boyle might just be so Town gets the guarantee of a consistent reliable centre back to fill in when needed.