You can be a great player but if you don’t have good character you are not going to be at Huddersfield Town”- Terriers owner Kevin Nagle sounds out warnings to Huddersfield Town players after relegation to League One amidst criticism over unacceptable behaviours

WHEN your club has been relegated, making public declarations of intent can come fraught with risk for a chairman.

For Kevin Nagle, his pledge to Huddersfield Town fans is one that will be well received and simply has to be done in his eyes, as well as many others’.

It does not surround openly predicting an instant return to the division Town have just vacated. That can be dangerous as Middlesbrough chairman Steve Gibson found out when he said that Boro ‘would smash the division’ after being relegated back to the Championship from the Premier League in 2016-17. They didn’t.

Huddersfield Town chairman and owner Kevin Nagle (centre),flanked by sporting director Mark Cartwright (left) and chief executive officer Jake Edwards (right). Nagle is understandably targeting promotion from League One in 2024-25, but is not putting his head on the chopping block and saying it will happen.

What he is unequivocal about and will promise is something that is deliverable.

Namely that the perceived toxic culture among certain players which ex-head coach Andre Breitenreiter exposed at the end of last season will be addressed.

In his time at Town, Breitenreiter will be chiefly remembered for calling out the ‘unacceptable’ behaviour of some unnamed players, which he said he hadn’t witnessed in 30 years in football. Nagle was shocked at what he heard. But he insists it is something that the club will eradicate. And that means departures this summer.

On his emotions after Breitenreiter’s incendiary comments, Nagle – speaking in his latest video diary on ‘X’ – said: “Deeply disappointed and shocked. I always asked about that (in) ‘Do you have any issues?’.

“The only thing I have experienced owning another football club is you learn if you have issues in the dressing room, the reality of it is that probably on the pitch, play is not going to be very good.

“We learned this and it’s something at Sac (Sacramento) Republic that I’ve told our general managers and managers that there is no tolerance for – let them go, cut them if you have to.

“We have a little different set of rules in the US than in the UK. But I know that once that happened, we were going to exit probably those players.

“I liked AB (Breitenreiter) a lot and he was a good guy and very candid about that situation. But unfortunately at that point, there was not a lot that I or he could do.

“Now we’re going to have Michael Duff and his team and a team we all build. It’s going to be very different. But we do know that when we do character checks, that’s really at the top right along with the quality of the play.

“You can be a great player. But if you don’t have good character or quality on that side, they are not going to be at Huddersfield Town.”