Sean Jarvis, Huddersfield Town’s Commercial Director, has been hyping up tomorrow (1 August 2019) for the last week without giving any specific details. In this article I’m going to try to predict exactly what this announcement is going to involve.

Just 24 hours to go Twitter Team…… 9am 1st August…. will you see it? pic.twitter.com/afClEXz9Qb — Sean Jarvis (@SeanMJarvis) July 31, 2019

Regular readers of this blog may remember that my article about the Paddy Power shirt sponsorship deal accurately predicted that Town wouldn’t have the bookmaker’s logo on their shirt. Drunk on the success of my previous prediction, I’m going to try and guess what will happen for tomorrow’s announcement.

1st August = 3rd kit reveal

It’s widely expected that the announcement tomorrow is going to be the reveal of the third kit that Huddersfield Town will play in next season. Given that our main kit is blue and white and our away kit is solid blue, it’s quite likely we’ll make use of our third kit a fair amount next season.

As our first fixture is only a few days away it seems almost certain that we’ll get a glimpse of new kit tomorrow. So that’s my first element of the prediction, and it’s the one I’m most confident about. The next prediction involves a bit more speculation…

Our 3rd kit will have a logo on the front of it

Paddy Power’s campaign around #SaveOurShirt is about taking logos and sponsors off shirts and giving them back to the fans. However, I think as part of this initiative they are going to allow a good cause to be advertised on the front of one of the shirts (this was something I predicted in my original article too).

Huddersfield Town have a long-standing tradition of supporting good causes and supporting the community. Paddy Power are using their sponsorship as a way of generating goodwill and “banter”, the fake shirt stunt ticked the banter box but I think they may want to do more to win over the hearts of Town fans (particularly after they’ve gently mocked us in their adverts). In fact, a spokesman for Paddy Power promised there was “more to come” in their interview with the Examiner.

Putting a logo on the front of our third shirt would water down Paddy Power’s message about taking shirts back, but using it to promote a good cause would generate some good PR for them. They’ve also had all the publicity they’re likely to get out of the initial shirt stunt, so the delay in releasing this shirt gives them another chance to get people talking about them.

My guess at the charity sponsor = Andy’s Man Club

I’m not confident I know which charity partner Town will pick to feature on their shirts, but I’m going to speculate that it’s going to be Andy’s Man Club. I’ve seen vaguely worded tweets talking about future partnerships between the club and the charity and one third of the money raised from the eBay sales of the fake shirts went to them.

Exciting news coming up regarding getting the @andysmanclubuk name out there to a massive audience….. #htafc @HTAFCBusiness — ANDYSMANCLUB Huddersfield (@AndysmanclubH) July 18, 2019

The Town Foundation would be a more obvious sponsor to feature but they wouldn’t particularly benefit from the exposure on the front of a shirt, whereas Andy’s Man Club need to spread awareness of their excellent work as much as possible so people know they are available.

I also think Paddy Power would be keen to be seen supporting an organisation that champions men’s mental health. It shows that they’re a caring organisation and it offsets some of the “lad” image they’ve built through their advertising.

I’ve also noticed that Sean Jarvis has tweeted about the group a few times lately, suggesting their is a strong relationship between the two organisations.

Watch the @channel5_tv prog on mental health… well done @AndysmanclubH… keep up the good work. 👊… — Sean Jarvis (@SeanMJarvis) July 30, 2019

Who are Andy’s Man Club?

If my prediction is completely wrong then I don’t particularly care, as it’s given me an opportunity to talk more about Andy’s Man Club. They’re a volunteer-led organisation then provide places for men to meet and talk about whatever is on their minds. While the idea is simple, the impact can be huge, as there are many men that don’t have an outlet to talk about their emotions and bottling things up can lead to disastrous consequences.

If this sounds like a service that might be useful to you then you can check on their website to see if there’s a group local to you. They tend to meet up on Monday evenings and are a very welcoming bunch.

Do I have an inside source for these predictions?

Nope. The contents of this article are wild speculation, so I apologise if I end up being completely wrong. I’ve just pieced together bits and bobs that I’ve noticed, mostly from Twitter, and made a few assumptions. I’d love to be “in the know” and share juicy gossip on this blog but, unless someone can get me Andy Booth’s phone number, I’m completely without connections to the club.