Huddersfield Town struck gold with Watford deal – He’ll be missed | OneFootball

Huddersfield Town struck gold with the arrival of Jonathan Hogg in 2013, and they will miss him following his departure this summer.

Back in the summer of 2013, Huddersfield Town brought in midfielder Jonathan Hogg from fellow Championship outfit Watford, and it was a deal that would play a massive role in shaping the future of the Terriers.

Not many at the time would have expected Hogg to have been at the club for as many as 12 years, making over 400 appearances during his time in West Yorkshire, but Hogg established himself as a fan favourite, a cult hero and, arguably, a legend of Huddersfield Town.

This summer sees the end of the former Darlington and Portsmouth loanee’s time at the John Smith’s Stadium, and it is an era that has seen Huddersfield scale unforeseen heights, with Hogg right at the heart of it.

As he moves on in his career with the 36-year-old now a free agent, Huddersfield fans will fondly remember his time at the club, whilst now having the time to acknowledge just how much of a masterstroke his arrival was, just how much of an impact he had, and perhaps just how much of a miss he will be.

Hogg adapted but always thrived at Huddersfield

Having made the move back north from Vicarage Road in 2013, Hogg almost immediately became instrumental in allowing Huddersfield to cement themselves as a Championship club.

A 17th-place finish in his first campaign, Huddersfield went on to achieve a couple of further bottom-half finishes in the second-tier, with Hogg a key cog in them becoming a stalwart at the level.

Under the management of David Wagner and amidst an influx of new signings, primarily players coming in from Germany to help aid the Wagner style of football, Hogg remained key.

Having been a tenacious, tough-tackling central midfielder, a profile of player always likely to win supporters’ affections, Hogg became the reliable metronome in the more tactically sophisticated style of Wagner.

Now adept with the physical demands and aggression required for Town, Hogg began to become something even more than that, almost a deep-lying playmaker role that was still tasked with doing the so-called ‘ugly’ side of the game.

He was a fulcrum of the Huddersfield side that gained promotion to the Premier League in 2017, against the odds via the play-offs, before then going on to make 59 appearances across two seasons in the top-flight, remaining a regular and a key man.

Despite often being plagued by injuries, Hogg remained a key man for Huddersfield in the Championship once again and, in 2021, he was appointed captain by Carlos Corberan.

Having been a captain in all but name, he then led on the pitch as they managed to achieve a third-place finish in the Championship, eventually losing to Nottingham Forest in the play-off final, with Hogg again a relentless driver of standards from the middle of the park.

His performances perhaps waned in terms of the level of their quality, but he remained a hard-working, industrious, never-say-die player for the club before his departure this summer.

Hogg will still be missed at Huddersfield

Despite perhaps the level of his play dropping, and Huddersfield supporters questioning the loyalty and attitude of a lot of their team, that was never something levelled against Hogg.

Still capable of managing 34 appearances in League One as club captain in the 24/25 season, he and Huddersfield required new things this summer to reshape and redefine their next era.

However, those qualities of will and determination that made him such a crowd favourite will be something that could still be missed as Town seek to become a different, more cohesive and consistent side next season.

For 12 seasons, Hogg transformed himself from potentially going on to become an EFL journeyman, to someone who was adored as Huddersfield supporters lived out wild dreams, particularly through the mid-to-late 2010s.

The Huddersfield Town story of that era was a special and unique one – and Hogg was a fundamental part of it.