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CARDSHARP
Hitting The Back Of The Net Cardsharp mused that despite all the discussions on Brexit, the UK rules Europe big time! Amazingly, four English Premier League soccer clubs - Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and Arsenal - occupy the four finalist positions in the two massive European Club Cup competitions. JeanClaude Juncker must be crying into his super strength Luxembourger beer, thinks Cardsharp. And not only that, the upcoming PG Live exhibition will also demonstrate to the head of the EU that we also lead Europe (and the world!) when it comes to greeting cards too. Cardsharp demonstrates his footie skills with a strong left pass on Premiership Football club ownership, an impressive dribbling trick round multiple specialist value retailer Card Factory, and then a header off wholesale group Budget Greeting Cards to score a blinder! Last month Cardsharp was totally moved by the emotional half-time speech made by exCard Factory mogul, Dean Hoyle at Huddersfield Town’s FC’s last home match of the season against Manchester United, which was viewed on television by millions of people. It was here that Dean announced his decision to sell his controlling interest in the club to fellow supporter and businessman Paul Hodgkinson, and leave it in safe hands for its loyal fans.
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PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
Huddersfield drew this game 1-1, and the team has only managed to win three games over the course of this season (and two of those were against the same team, Wolverhampton Wanderers) being relegated with a record low points total, but that’s not the point. Under Dean, Huddersfield Town FC achieved a minor miracle in not only getting
Above: The John Smith’s Stadium. Left: The four English football teams who have reached the finals of both of the European Club Cup competitions.
promoted from the Championship via the play-offs (the first time ever do so with a ‘negative’ goal difference), ‘Town’ went on to somehow survive its first year in the Premiership on an annual wage bill that was lowest in the division by far. Dean, who unfortunately has not been well, suffering with pancreatitis, received a standing ovation at that Man United game for what he has achieved in a decade of ownership of the club, a decade that has seen him put Huddersfield on the map, as a soccer team and as a town itself. Such is the huge esteem that Dean is held by Town fans, there is a campaign to have a stand named after him, and have a statue of him erected outside the main entrance. When he bought the club, the average attendance was around the 8,000 mark. Now, the John Smith’s Stadium is rammed to the rafters with 24,500 at every home match. He must be very proud of his hometown football club ownership, and he bows out with his head held very high. How did Dean do this? To Cardsharp’s mind he did this by approaching ownership of his hometown football team by many of the same principles that served him so well at Card Factory, and indeed is doing the