Huddersfield Town found keys to the Premier League thanks to Man City | OneFootball

Huddersfield Town produced a masterstroke of a signing by bringing Aaron Mooy in from Manchester City in the summer of 2016.

Having been also-rans in the Championship for a few seasons, following their promotion from League One in the 2011/12 campaign, the summer of 2016 saw Huddersfield Town transform themselves into a team that would eventually gain promotion to the Premier League.

As part of an aggressive recruitment drive at the start of the summer, whereby 12 first-team players had been added to the squad by mid-way through July, the Terriers brought in a gem with the loan signing of Aaron Mooy from Manchester City.

Having turned professional at Bolton Wanderers, Mooy departed England for St Mirren without having played a game for the Trotters in 2010.

After a stint in Scotland, the Sydney-born midfielder returned to his hometown with Western Sydney Wanderers ahead of moving into the City Football Group with Melbourne City in 2014.

After a couple of seasons as the key man for the Victorians, winning their Player of the Year award in successive campaigns, Mooy moved on to Manchester City in 2016.

Immediately after joining, with the intention being to get Mooy some regular minutes in England, Mooy was loaned out by City and Huddersfield were the team that managed to pounce and land themselves a major coup and a player that would eventually help guide them to the top-flight.

Aaron Mooy became the main man at Huddersfield Town after Man City switch

Having been appointed mid-way through the previous campaign, ahead of their squad overhaul, David Wagner had shown signs of being able to majorly improve Huddersfield, running the eye over the squad and who he would want to form part of it the next year and exactly what was required.

The arrival of Aaron Mooy elevated the level of technical quality and competence in the middle of the park for the Terriers, providing extra creativity from further back.

Capable of playing in both the so-called ‘number ten’ position, as well as in the box-to-box role alongside defensive midfielder Jonathan Hogg, Mooy’s versatility and ability to adapt to the tactical setup of Wagner’s 4-2-3-1 was crucial to their success.

The Australian international offered an added level of intelligence in midfield, but with a genuine effectiveness, too, in the final third, providing seven assists in the second-tier, only behind right-back Tommy Smith, with 11 direct goal involvements over the course of the entirety of the campaign.

Hogg led the way for most accurate passes per 90 for Huddersfield in the 2016/17 campaign, with 64.7 per game, but he was the only man to manage more than Mooy, with 60.1.

Mooy, though, also managed to create seven big chances over the course of the season, with 96 chances created in total, which was comfortably the most of the Town squad, over 40 more than the next most productive creator in that sense, according to FotMob, highlighting his ability to balance simply retaining the ball, brilliant for control of the game, but also providing a real and consistent threat going forward.

With Huddersfield surpassing expectations by managing a fifth-place finish in the Championship, the Terriers then managed to edge past Sheffield Wednesday on penalties in the semi-finals before another penalty shootout win at Wembley Stadium against Reading.

Mooy effectively scored the winning penalty before Town's Jack Payne and Wednesday's Fernando Forestieri missed in the clash at Hillsborough, before the Aussie also notched the fourth Huddersfield penalty at Wembley, keeping his nerve in a 4-3 victory after Liam Moore had missed for the Royals.

Such was his level of performance and importance throughout the promotion-winning campaign, Huddersfield pushed the boat out to ensure Mooy remained at the John Smith’s Stadium.

Huddersfield made Mooy a permanent member of their squad for a fee believed to be in the region of £8 million, rising to £10 million, which was a club record at the time in June 2017.

On the opening day of the 2017/18 season, in a team with four new signings, Mooy kept his place and put in an excellent display to help Huddersfield defeat Crystal Palace by three goals to nil at Selhurst Park.

Mooy made 34 starts for Huddersfield that season and was a key man as they managed to produce another major upset by avoiding an immediate relegation back down to the second-tier.

Not only had Mooy proven to be a signing that would be instrumental in taking Huddersfield up, but he was also key to helping them stay up under the management of Wagner.

Mooy did eventually return to the Championship in 2019, following Huddersfield’s inevitable demotion from the Premier League, albeit he had been suffering from injury a lot more in the 2018/19 campaign as they failed to sustain their top tier pace, but just for one appearance.

He joined Brighton and Hove Albion on an initial loan deal before moving to the Seagulls permanently in January 2020 ahead of a move to Shanghai SIPG for a couple of year.