OWNER WAITING ON ANDRE’S DECISION OVER STAYING AT TOWN
NAGLE WANTS COACH TO REMAIN AS CLUB MANAGER
HUDDERSFIELD Town owner Kevin Nagle has expressed his desire for Andre Breitenreiter to remain at the club as the head coach continues to contemplate his future.
The German was appointed as Town’s head coach on a two-and-ahalf year deal in February, but was unable to steer the Terriers clear of the relegation zone.
Town won just two of their final 13 matches of the campaign since Breitenreiter took charge, as they went on to finish the season six points inside the bottom three.
Following the final game of the season at Ipswich Town, the Terriers’ boss said he needed ‘time to reflect’ before deciding whether to remain with the club in League One.
Despite being unable to guide the Terriers to safety, Nagle has confirmed that Breitenreiter is the club’s ‘number one’ choice to lead the side into League One, but the owner remains without a decision from his head coach, which he hopes to receive imminently.
“I’d loved to have heard from Andre by today (Wednesday). Unfortunately, he’s with his family trying to figure out his decision,” Nagle said in his end-of-season diary on X.
“I’m hoping that I hear tomorrow (Thursday) one way or another. We’ve got things we have to do. I’d love for Andre to be part of the build of what I think would be something special, what we’re beginning, so time is of the essence.
“Andre is our number one guy, I want him. I think if you look around, by and large our supporter base wants him. We also know there are other opportunities out there as well. They exist, and we do have contingency plans, although Andre is our number one person.”
The German aired some of his criticisms regarding aspects of the team in the closing weeks of the campaign, questioning the unity among the squad as well as the commitment of some players.
Nagle admitted that he was not aware of the extent of the problems that the team was facing, but acknowledges that the culture needs to be addressed moving forward.
“I didn’t have an issue with him saying it. I think part of it is, Andre is German culture, and they might do things a little bit different there,” the Terriers’ owner added.
“We talk about Yorkshire people being direct, I think the Germans are really direct. I think what we did see is we saw Andre being very direct.
“Candidly, I did not know we had the kind of issues that we had.
“I knew we had some issues, but I think that what occurs in the locker room generally sometimes stays in the locker room, but it got out of the locker room. I did not know that, but I also knew that we needed a cultural change, a culture of winning. I say it all the time, I said it before I ever owned Town and I’ll say it after. That will create success, and we know that we need that.
“From that standpoint, we knew that we had to change [things] once that occurred, but I think Andre could be the right guy, is the right guy, we just have to wait for
I’d love for Andre to be part of the build of what I think would be something special Kevin Nagle
him.
“The chemistry has to come together and work, and it seems like it broke down at some point.
“In baseball, if you’ve got the nine best players on your team, they’re not necessarily going to win a championship. If you’ve got 11 players on an American football team or soccer team, you might not win a championship. It’s the chemistry that typically counts – but they need talent as well.”