The Guardian has two good articles on the Play-Off finalists https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...n-not-easy-huddersfield-christopher-schindler https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/may/27/jaap-stam-reading-dutch-way-wembley The Huddersfield article is about Christopher Schindler, one of Wagner's imports. This section talks about how much Wagner has impressed Schindler over the season: “The boss called me and he wanted to invite me to see what is happening here,” says Schindler. “He told me about the players he wanted to sign. Not specific names but the positions and the way he wanted to play. He showed me videos of how we would play. I felt challenged.” The clarity of Wagner’s vision made a mark on Schindler. “It is totally different here. In [1860] Munich we had so many different styles because we had so many different bosses, coaches and so on. It was unbelievable. Everybody tried their best and wanted success but when you have so many coaches with so many different players who are brought in, it’s hard to get that union on the pitch. That was the problem we had. “Everybody tried their best but we were not a team. My whole time as a professional there we had that frustration and supporters were upset because at the start of every year we thought: ‘Now we will change things,’ but it got worse. Here, at Huddersfield, we are really a team.” It is a tribute to Wagner that he has managed to create such unity fast and despite so many of the players being new, with Schindler being one of 11 to have arrived since last summer. Five of those are German, including two of Schindler’s defensive partners, his fellow centre-back, Michael Hefele, and the left-back, Chris Löwe. Schindler was initially wary about being surrounded by so many compatriots, having seen things go wrong at 1860 Munich when that club went through a spell of signing Spaniards. He spoke of his concerns to Wagner before committing himself. “He said straight away: ‘Yes, I’ve thought about that and it’s important to have good characters in the team no matter where they’re from. The character has to be good.’” Hefele and Löwe were, like Schindler, captains at their previous clubs and they and the other Germans, Elias Kachunga and Collin Quaner, have blended perfectly with their team-mates.
📹 an amazing moment as David Wagner goes to see a few of the young #htafc fans waiting patiently before the coach departs (DTS) pic.twitter.com/aUiG4ZQfD9— Huddersfield Town (@htafc) May 27, 2017
Huddersfield appear to be wearing Dortmund kits. Also, I learned that Sir Patrick Stewart is a huge HTAFC fan.
For a minute there in the penalty shootout, I thought this would be the second straight year that an American manager finished 1 goal short of promotion. Congrats to Wagner!
I don't see that happening. Boyd is oft-injured and was a part-time player for the worst team in Germany. Bottom EPL teams have a higher standard than that. They'll spend money after they got the boost. I think a promotion is on average worth 80-100 million euros. Another German-American certainly could have caught his eye though in Danny Williams, seeing as though he was playing against him. That's a very plausible landing spot for Williams. But just because Wagner played for the US national team doesn't mean he'll be accommodating to Americans. There were none on Huddersfield this season. He's spent his entire life in Europe and was only associated w/ the USNT for 2 years. His ties to and knowledge of American players are pretty loose on the surface.
which is why I said Boyd and not MLS players There was interest months ago. Shame Boyd is injured. Maybe he'd have gotten (due to Wagner's belief) picked up for cheap even if he's riding the bench there. You're def right. The club is going to spend some cash. And Wagner will be wanting to keep his job, so less risks to be taken.
He does know Boyd from Dortmund II. He is more likely to go after people he knew in Germany. So I guess for Yanks that means Junior Flores (j/k).
True, that. Mirfield, his hometown (village, really) is just 6 miles from Huddersfield and for a man of his generation - he was born in 1940 - Huddersfield's glory days of the mid-20s weren't that long ago when he was a lad.
Getting promoted, especially in light of their struggles in front of goal, is an amazing achievement. They had a budget of a relegation struggler and yet they went up by playing football. It's going to be interesting watching them next season. Now that they're promoted, it'll be time to address their striker problems with a new signing up top. 12million euros will be chump change to any EPL side, but it is Bobby Woods' buyout fee . . . There! I said it!
That would be a pretty damn decent fit for jowly newly promoted budget sides stay up, set pieces and strikers who can score on the counter or create their own.
Seems his eligibility to play for the US was questioned by Canada: https://www.socceramerica.com/article/17036/wagner-affair-case-of-mistaken-identity.html
3-0 vs Canada in March 1997? Was that game played at Stanford? I was at that game... my first ever Nats game, too.. awesome!
From a couple of days ago: http://bet.unibet.co.uk/football/or...mier-league?mktid=52:5211000020:blog_28052017 With or without Huddersfield, David Wagner is destined for the Premier League Perhaps understandably though, Wagner has been eager to forge his own identity. “I am not Klopp, he is just my friend,” he said in March. To define Wagner simply as a, ‘Klopp Clone’ is dismissive of not only his work, but also the nuances of his approach. “We now call it the Terriers’ identity,” Wagner told the Guardian. “Exactly the style of football I love is like a terrier.”
This guy can coach this is not a question of "he inherited a talented squad and got the best of out them", this guy took a shitty shifty rusty ass 1985 red flyer wagon and using only juicy fruit, duct tape, and some steampunk goggles, made that contraption purr its way to the premier league. Cheers to this dude hope he coaches the senior team some day for now he's headed to the Prem no matter how you slice it.
With the Dortmund gig now open, it wouldn't surprise me to see David's name become listed as a candidate
Another profile: http://soccer.nbcsports.com/2017/05/30/charismatic-david-wagner-leads-huddersfields-charge/ Huddersfield were meant to finish in midtable, at best, as fans bought in to Wagner’s charisma after he rebuilt the squad in the second half of the 2015-16 season on the way to a 19th place finish in the 24-team league, before setting things up perfectly for his first full season in England with a team-bonding trip to Sweden during preseason. “He has made a massive difference, he has changed the whole culture of the club around,” Steven Sunderland, a lifelong Huddersfield fan said outside Wembley. “He has brought a new mentality to the game. That German mentality. A winning mentality. He has got everybody on board and that’s the main thing.” Wagner also didn’t take much of the praise, instead lavishing it on his players who have been brought together with loan deals, free transfers and their record transfer who scored the winning penalty kick at Wembley, Christopher Schindler, cost just $2.3 million from 1860 Munich last summer.
He's staying put: David Wagner's agent confirms he'll remain at Huddersfield for PL season || #HTAFC - https://t.co/QRX3z45jGW— NBC Sports Soccer (@NBCSportsSoccer) June 6, 2017
And the new contract: BREAKING: Head coach David Wagner agrees new contract with @htafcdotcom - Sky sources. #SSNHQ pic.twitter.com/pK7iDjVP2r— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) June 6, 2017
Healthy raise I assume. Next step he keeps them up, season 3 he progresses them to top half, then jumps back to Dortmund and then to a monster club. My Nostradamus prediction.
The right move. Unless he'd been offered the Dortmund job, any other move would leave him looking - and probably feeling - that he'd left with the job unfinished for more money. A mercenary, in other words. Really, this is a can't lose situation. As long as 'Udders don't shit the bed under him he's still a hero if they go down, an over-performer if they go down fighting (18th or 19th), and a messiah if he keeps them up. Keep them up for two seasons and it's a CL club as the next move