Philip Billing and Zanka were not included in the list of Huddersfield Town squad numbers announced on Friday, having not made an appearance between them in the last seven games of last season.

It is a statement of the obvious that there has been a breakdown between the players and the club, with Billing quoted in the Danish press in May calling head coach Jan Siewert 'arrogant'.

When asked about the issue as part of Monday's fan Q&A, Town chairman Phil Hodgkinson said: "My experience from the first day I've been at the club, and particularly in the last week at the training camp in Austria, has been fantastic.

"What I would say to you is that everyone that was in that training camp, without exception, fully supports the manager, and we've absolutely 100% got a team back.

"As far as any players that weren't at the training camp, they weren't at the training camp for a reason - obviously we had some on international duty who were late back."

The fan who asked the question again restated his question, asking what would happen if the club do not receive an acceptable bid for the pair.

Hodgkinson replied: "They won't be involved in the first team at Huddersfield Town football club."

The fan asked for a third time if they would just be allowed to sit in the bench or whether they would play.

"They won't be involved in the first team at Huddersfield Town football club, not while I'm here," Hodgkinson repeated, and this time his response was met with a ripple of applause from the assembled crowd.

An unequivocal response, but one that still leaves the question open: what will happen to the players now?

There are two sides to every story, and it would be wrong for us to suggest that the entire blame for that breakdown should lie squarely at the players' feet without knowing the full facts. But the response to Hodgkinson's answer at the Q&A reaffirms the same overwhelmingly negative sentiment we get from Town fans every time we post a story about the two on social media.

As discussed on the latest episode of our podcast, Ooh To Be A..., the public nature of the spat - particularly on Billing's part - surely makes the pair a less attractive proposition to other clubs than if it had all been kept behind closed doors.

Both men only have a year left on their contracts - there is surely no way Town will trigger their option to add another year to Billing's deal, meaning it is not beyond the realms of possibility that they could simply run down their contracts over the next 12 months without appearing for the team.

The makeup of the squad also suggests that the club have already built around the pair not playing a part: the stated principle of 'one in, one out' from hereon in surely does not apply to these two, nor to Abdelhamid Sabiri or Ben Hamer, who are also without squad numbers - though Hodgkinson spoke very positively about Hamer's attitude at the Q&A, suggesting the goalkeeper is a very different case altogether.

But the club would surely prefer to get the two off the wage bill if they possibly can - yet the club's outright statement that neither will be involved in the first team drives their price down to an absolute minimum.

That means that surely only the outbreak of a bidding war could drive that back up, but the likelihood of that happening is a different matter. A handful of transfer rumours have circulated for both Billing and Zanka, but nothing concrete appears to have emerged as far as we have been informed.

That leaves both the players and the club in a straightforward yet thorny situation. Do they stay at the club? Do they go out on loan? Would the club countenance allowing them to leave on the cheap if larger bids fail to materialise?

The transfer window closes for Premier League and Championship clubs on Thursday 8th August, just two and a half weeks away - though the window is open until the end of August in most European countries if moves abroad could be secured. The next few weeks will be very interesting as far as these two are concerned.


The latest episode of our Huddersfield Town podcast 'Ooh To Be A...' is out now! Hear our thoughts on the kit launch, squad depth and playing style in the latest episode...details on where you can get it here.