Head Coach gives his comments to htafc.com
- David Wagner reviews the January 2016 transfer window
- Head Coach discusses HTAFC's plan
- DW: "have patience and to trust in me"
David Wagner has commented on his experiences after his first English transfer window closed at 11pm on Monday night.
“It has been a very interesting period for me, mostly due to the way that English supporters and the media approach it!” David admitted to htafc.com. “This is very different to what happens in Germany, with much more pressure from the outside to bring players in.”
Wagner’s work behind the scenes on player scouting and recruitment started from the first day he walked through the door at ‘The Yorkshire Club’ in November, but he remained adamant throughout the window that he was happy with his squad and that any permanent moves would only be made for long term gain.
Now, with the window for permanent deals closed until the end of the 2015/16 campaign, the Head Coach has explained his thoughts on January.
“During the winter window, we had three aims.
“The first was the one I talked about the most during January; to try and secure some of our player targets who could help us in the long term.
“As I said, the Chairman has given us a big budget to work with – but I will only spend his money like it is my own, on players we are 100% convinced by. Everything about a player you buy must be right; his quality, his personality and the money involved.
“As I also said, the right player is not always the one you can get the fastest and this was the case in this winter window. This shows that it is not easy to get good players in this time; they are always in contract and teams don’t want to let good players go!
“The good news is that none of our targets moved during the last month, so we will go down this road again in the summer. Some of these players are then out of contract. I believe they will be worth the wait.
David continued:
“Once it became clear that our targets were not available in this winter window, we went down another road and brought players into our squad on loans who can help us for the rest of this season.
“I’ve been honest by saying that I’m not a big fan of loans and that I prefer to work with our own players if possible, but we always had short term possibilities in our minds if we could not get our main targets here during January. When this became the case, we went down this road.
“Jed Steer, James Husband and Elvis Manu at the Club will help me to make good decisions with our squad between now and the end of the season. They are all good players who can help us on our way.”
The Head Coach concluded:
“The third – and perhaps most important – aim was to secure our quality players to the Club. This has not just happened during the winter window, but ever since the first day I arrived at Huddersfield.
“We have talked about this at the Club and no players will leave us if I am not happy with the situation.
“To do this, it is important we are protected against players leaving when their contracts run out. We have already given new, longer contracts to Joe Lolley, Harry Bunn and Joe Murphy in my three months at Huddersfield and we have the option of keeping Karim Matmour for longer if we want.
“To have a successful squad, I believe consistency in the players is very, very important.”
To finish, Town’s Head Coach made a request of the Club’s supporters.
“I must ask everyone to have patience and to trust in me and the people at the Club to do what is right.
“That we must wait until the summer is not a problem for me. It does not mean everyone needs to be worried; it is OK. Everyone here – Dean Hoyle, the Board, Stuart Webber, everyone – is excited and positive about creating something good at Huddersfield. We will get the right players to the Club in time.
“I am still very excited about what is possible with the players we have now too. We must remember we have only been on our way for 13 weeks and there is much more that is possible!
“For now, the hard work does not stop. Our focus is on Preston on Saturday.”
