DAVID Wagner has revealed the power behind the throne, or rather the phone, at Huddersfield Town – his wife Judith, who makes him dump his phone at certain times.
And that means any agent trying to sell him a player has to wait if they time their calls wrong.
Wagner flew to the Spanish island of Formentera for a fortnight after guiding the Terriers to the Premier League for the first time in 45 years, but there was the prospect of it not being much of a holiday.
For upto FIVE HOURS a day, the German’s phone would be ringing, mostly from people trying to pitch a new face to him. So Judith proposed a decision and he agreed.
Town boss Wagner said: “Sometimes, it was more of a problem for my wife if I took my phone again and again and again.
“Now we’ve found a solution – when we’re at breakfast, lunch and dinner, I put my mobile phone away. Hopefully, it works in the future!
“Every day, five hours of calls was nothing but the hours between were very good and I was able to relax and recharge the batteries.
“To be fair, there were some calls before Wembley saying, ‘In case you get promoted, I have some players.’ So it started before.
“It never really stops being the manager of a football club, especially a Premier League club, but if you enjoy what you do it isn’t as much of a problem.”
Wagner can pretty much do no wrong at Huddersfield after guiding them to the Premier League. A new two-year contract was signed after he looked at other offers in England and Europe and chairman Dean Hoyle assured him he will be there even if they finish bottom.
As he put it: “He stays, unless he buggers off.”
But this is not a year-long tourist jaunt of the top flight, this is a concerted attempt to defy the odds, with the boss saying they will be the Premier League’s biggest ever underdogs.
And the scrutiny will be much bigger as he faces the biggest teams and some of the best managers in the world – who he will NOT be putting on a pedestal.
Wagner added: “There was a lot of interest from the media in Germany in the off-season and I was in touch with a lot of people in the German football business.
“Especially in Germany, Huddersfield Town is now a name in football and I think it wasn’t 18 months ago as even I didn’t know much about them when I first got in touch with them.
“Now after the top six, Huddersfield is maybe one of the most known English clubs in Germany.
“But the prospect of facing big managers is not in my head. Last season, we played against Rafa Benitez and Roberto di Matteo, as well as Pep Guardiola in the FA Cup, so this isn’t in my head.
“One of the most attractive things in the Premier League is that in it are the best managers in the world, like the players.
“I know there’s some very good players and managers in Spain, Italy and Germany but most of them are in the Premier League, that’s why this league is magical.”
Wagner is certainly using their new-found status to spend. He has twice broken the Terriers’ transfer record for Steve Mounie and Aaron Mooy, as well as shelling out £7 million for Tom Ince, with plenty more to come.
But he insists the character of players is just as important, adding: “It’s easy to identify talent, you watch clips and matches, but the most difficult thing for me is to identify the characters for the club, my philosophy, the dressing room and for me as a manager.
“Identifying the character is as important as it is to identify the sports side of the player.
“And when I identify targets, experience of the Premier League is not one of the points, absolutely not. I know experience is important but it’s not one of the key points a player has to have if I’d like to sign him.”
One thing has changed for Huddersfield’s players this year, there will be no return to the tiny Swedish island they went to last year – with no electricity, no toilet, no beds and no mobile phones.
The efforts of getting to the top flight, which ended with a penalty shoot-out win in the Play-Off Final over Reading, left too little time to fit in another visit.
Wagner said: “I haven’t found space in our pre-season schedule because of the long season we played.
“We only had an off-season of four weeks and a few days and everybody, especially the players, needed this time.
“If I wanted to do something similar, then the off-season would’ve been fewer than four weeks and it’s not possible if you know you’re going to be in for the next 10-and-a-half months.”
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