Michael Duff’s first words as Huddersfield Town manager as a grand plan is set

Huddersfield Town’s new head coach Michael Duff aims to “create a winning culture” at the club as he looks to secure an immediate return to the Championship. The Terriers turned to Duff on Monday to lead the club into their first League One campaign since 2012, with Town finishing second from bottom in the bottom tier last season.

Duff is entering his fourth managerial role, with the 46-year-old leading Cheltenham Town to promotion from League Two as champions in 2021 before taking Barnsley to the League One play-off final the following year. After an unsuccessful spell with Swansea City last season, Duff is back in the dugout with the Terriers, whose disappointing campaign last season ended in relegation.

With Town winning just nine games over the past year in a difficult year, Duff is looking to “pull it all together” to get things moving in the right direction. “I took on an interesting project, I know that. I came in fully aware of what happened last season and it’s an opportunity to reset,” said the new Terriers boss at his first press conference.

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“I think that’s the excitement of the opportunity. Having spoken to Kevin (Nagle), Jake (Edwards) and Mark (Cartwright) about where they want to take the club, it’s a lot of hard work between them, but I’ve had my first break from football in 30 years, so everyone it’s ready for the end of the season and I can’t wait to go. I am very excited about the whole opportunity.

“There was a relegation, so something went wrong. Whether that’s happened in the last six months or whether it’s happened on a year-over-year decline, it’s not for me to make those judgments yet.

“Having the conversations we’re having, we want to rebuild, we want to put everything back together and create a winning environment – ​​the key is there’s a lot of hard work between them, even before pre-season starts.

“The presumption is that we want to be promoted next year, make no mistake about it, but I am fully aware that there is no right. We’ve been in this league before with some big, big football clubs and we’re one of those big clubs, but just because we got relegated, it doesn’t mean ‘oh we’re going to get promoted’.

“You have to implement a lot of things, everything has to be right. The recruiting, the character of the people, the personnel has got to be right, so everything lines up to create a winning culture, and then winning football games and promotions are a by-product of that. First, we have to start laying the groundwork for building all these little incremental things.”

Duff has outlined what he expects from his squad during his time in charge, with the new head coach wanting “the look on the shirt” as a minimum requirement, as well as having players with the right “attitude and mentality”.

“The key is that when we come together, we want to give the city a football club they can be proud of. Every player entering will need to recognize and understand the importance of the club in the city. They have to understand what you have to do to wear the football shirt,” Duff added.

“There are certain expectations within the football club, there are certain expectations that I expect from my players. I’ve talked about this before in other press conferences, sweat on the shirt is a minimum.

“I think the people in this area, the supporters of the football club, will accept mistakes as long as it is seen that you have an attempt and you will try. That was me as a player. I wasn’t a particularly good player as a footballer, but I think I’ve done well in my career because of my attitude and mentality. This is what we want to instill.

“It’s easy when things don’t go well, people point fingers, people blame everybody else, it’s everybody’s fault. Now it’s a chance to reset and get everybody aligned, which is the hard part, to build a culture that hopefully promotes you and then go from there.”