Huddersfield Town: “Undermining the management” claim made amid Kevin Nagle verdict | OneFootball

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Huddersfield Town were purchased by current club owner Kevin Nagle in June 2023, after former manager Neil Warnock guided the Terriers to safety at the end of the previous Championship campaign.

The West Yorkshire outfit once again find themselves in a relegation battle though under their new custodian, and they are currently in the bottom three with just eight games left - but the Terriers still face some of their relegation rivals such as Stoke City, who they clash with on Easter Monday.

Is Kevin Nagle doing a good job as Huddersfield Town owner?

FLW's Terriers fan pundit Graeme Rayner is satisfied with the overall performance of Nagle though, who took control of the club from previous owner Dean Hoyle last summer, who in turn had taken control back of Town in 2021 following the collapse of Phil Hodgkinson's businesses.

Speaking to Football League World, Graeme said: "Kevin Nagle, I'm going to say 7/10 currently.

"I think he has put his money where his mouth is in the transfer window, and he's made the right appointment now with Andre Breitenreiter.

"I do think it's the right appointment.

"There was a misstep with Darren Moore, but I think that was probably more likely down to bad advice from the team he (Nagle) has put in place to do those kind of recruitment jobs.

"His style of communication with the fans is very much a Marmite kind of approach, some fans think he speaks too much on social media, other fans like it.

"Currently I quite like it, I think that he needs to take care not to overstep to the point where he's undermining the management, and I think that probably happened a bit under Neil Warnock and Darren Moore occasionally, but I like the openness and the forthrightness and the honesty that comes with it.

"I think that after the previous owner had clearly lost the hunger and desire to run the club and almost shut down those communication channels, it is quite refreshing.

"So I don't mind it, it doesn't seem to be about ego, it seems to be about a desire to communicate which is good.

"I'd give him sort of a 6/10.

"Darren Moore knocks easily two points off that, if we appointed someone like Breitenreiter straight after Warnock, then he'd probably be an 8 or a 9/10 now, so yeah, we'll see what the future holds."

Nagle's first season will be defined by outcome of relegation battle

With the Championship table so tight at the bottom, the Terriers have every chance of climbing up the table away from danger, while Nagle will not want his first season as owner to be remembered for the wrong seasons.

The West Yorkshire side are in danger of being relegated to League One, and there is a real possibility that Nagle's first campaign at the ownership helm could end in disaster.

On the other hand, despite failing to win since February 24, the Terriers are capable of avoiding the drop, not least because they are only inside the bottom three on goal difference.

Furthermore, Breitenreiter's men face many relegation rivals between now and the end of the season, such as Monday's meeting with Stoke.

The Terriers also face Millwall, Swansea and Birmingham in April, so they play a lot of the teams around them at the business end of the season, which is a situation that could go either way.