Huddersfield Town vs Burnley
Burnley’s pre-season preparations continue on Saturday when they cross the border from Lancashire into Yorkshire to take on Huddersfield Town.
The Clarets have been on warm weather training in Portugal where they played out a 1-1 draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers, and now they return home to continue their approach to another Premier League campaign. Club Friendly: Huddersfield Town vs Burnley will be followed by a trip to Stoke and then a tasty home clash with Serie A giants Lazio before the serious business starts on 16th August when Scott Parker’s men visit Tottenham Hotspur in their season opener.
Huddersfield Town will start their 2025/26 promotion campaign with a new man at the helm as former goalkeeper Lee Grant becomes the Terriers’ seventh manager since the beginning of 2023. The last time the two teams met, in 2023, the Clarets ran out 4-0 winners as they marched towards promotion while the Terriers narrowly avoided relegation. And the following year, Huddersfield were relegated to the third tier, where they stayed last term with a tenth place finish.
It’s not one of the glamour pre-season friendlies but Burnley and Huddersfield are two northern clubs with rich histories and mutual respect, and this is always a great game for the fans.
Burnley aiming for a solid start
The pre-season Premier League 2025 betting odds, here at SBOTOP and across the market, predict a tough campaign for the three newcomers, Burnley, Leeds United and Sunderland. And the Clarets are hoping to learn from their disastrous campaign under Vincent Kompany in 2023/24 when they were relegated with a paltry 24 points, and the fewest number of victories in a season in the club’s 143-year history.
Between 2016 and 2022, the Clarets had six consecutive campaigns in the Premier League under Sean Dyche with an average position of 13th and a foray into the Europa League in 2018. After another promotion with a 100 points tally, that type of run is what Parker and the club’s owners are aiming for and, while the top clubs have their own aspirations and are spending big, there is no shortage of ambition in the small East Lancashire town. It’s all about Premier League 2025 results and the club is working hard to equip itself to get off the mark quickly, with a home game against Sunderland following the trip to Spurs.
Centre back CJ Egan Reilly has transferred to Olympique Marseilles and it looks likely keeper James Trafford may be on his way back to Manchester City. But, among a number of impressive signings, including Netherlands international wingback Quilindschy Hartman and centre back Axel Tuanzebe, Kyle Walker has been the eye-catching recruit.
Just a year ago Walker was a key part of Manchester City’s 2024 league winning team and is four caps from being an England centurian and he will be a huge figure in the Clarets’ campaign. And, if Trafford does head to the Etihad we may well see another player or two coming the other way.
Huddersfield Boss goes down Memory Lane
This is Terriers boss Lee Grant’s first job in management after spending three years in Kieran McKenna’s coaching group at Ipswich Town. Being a coach and being the gaffer are two entirely different things but Grant is undaunted after signing a three-year deal. The 42-year-old said: “There are no guarantees, and I think anyone who has been in the game long enough has seen the full raft of decision-making processes and the wide-ranging results of those decisions. What I’m pleased with about is Huddersfield Town and me have a huge alignment of what we think has got a really good chance of working for us this year.”
Grant might meet a few old friends in the Clarets’ entourage when they arrive in Huddersfield. He played 114 games for the Clarets during Burnley’s last stint of more than a year in the second tier of English football, and he will be pleased to seeing his old team thriving. But not at 2pm on Saturday!
Terriers fans will hope to see their new big signing, Alfe May, playing against Burnley after he switched from Birmingham City to Huddersfield when the Blues returned to the Championship following promotion in May. He scored 16 goals for Birmingham last term though May was close to signing for Huddersfield before the 2024/25 campaign began.
Now Grant hope May can help him plan to emulate Birmingham’s success and bring some stability to the club, in the hope they can establish themselves as League One contenders. He will get some idea where his squad sits when it meets Premier League opponents at the weekend.
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