Huddersfield Town have a clear transfer priority after Andre Breitenreiter’s criticism of the squad

Huddersfield Town owner Kevin Nagle has insisted that “character checks” will be a crucial part of the club’s recruitment drive this summer after problems with the squad last season.

Towards the end of his short reign, former coach Andre Breitenreiter said he had inherited “big problems in the squad”, with the German criticizing the lack of commitment from some players as well as a lack of unity in the group.

The club have since made the decision to make a number of players available for transfer as they look to overhaul the squad following relegation to League One.

Read more: Kevin Nagle gets a big boost as Huddersfield Town’s academy have been granted third-tier status

Stressing that Town needed a “total reset” after falling into the third tier, Breitenreiter opted not to stay on and oversee the rebuild, with the club moving quickly to appoint Michael Duff as a replacement.

Given last season’s problems, Nagle has insisted there will be no room at Town for anyone to disrupt the team’s harmony going forward, with the owner stressing that due diligence will be done on the character of any potential new recruits.

Discussing Breitenreiter’s comments, Nagle said in his journal about X: “(I was) equally disappointed, shocked.

“I always asked about it, do we have problems? The one thing in my experience of owning another club is that you learn that if you have problems in the dressing room, the reality is probably on the pitch, the game is not going to be very good. I learned this.

“It’s something at Sac Republic that we’ve told our general managers and managers, there’s no tolerance for that. Leave them, cut them if you have to. I actually would have said the same thing (with some of Town’s players), we have a slightly different set of rules in the UK than in the US, but I knew once that happened we’d probably ditch those. players.

“AB, I like him a lot, he’s a good guy and I think he was very honest about the situation, but unfortunately at the time there wasn’t much he or I could do.

“Honestly, he tried to do the best he could with the players he had and I thought he was quite creative with what he tried to do to get the best out of them. That’s what I would have done, but he was one step ahead of me on that.

“This is very important, this is now. We’re going to have Michael Duff, this is going to be his team, it’s going to be a team that we’re all building.

“It’s going to be very different, but we know that when we do character checks, it’s really on the cutting edge, along with the quality of the play. You can be a great player, but if you don’t have character or good quality in that side, they won’t be at Huddersfield Town.”

Nagle has expressed his optimism ahead of the new campaign with Duff at the helm, with the owner confident the former Cheltenham Town, Barnsley and Swansea City boss can put together a squad capable of challenging for promotion.

“Michael Duff has been particularly successful in League One,” said Nagle. “He knows the players, he knows I think the quality, the type of team he wants and the chemistry he wants in that team. I feel very good where we are.

“I know there have been some questions about ‘why are we signing free transfers’? As far as we can see, all of these players are being watched. We have a very definite plan for how we’re going to move forward.”