Huddersfield Town boss Michael Duff opens up on new managerial challenge and 'talk is cheap' warning

Michael Duff accepts he faces a massive challenge with Huddersfield Town. The former Northern Ireland defender was appointed Terriers boss on May 13, ending a six-month break from management after being sacked by Swansea City last December.

He joins a Huddersfield side that suffered relegation from the Championship this season. Their former boss Andre Breitenreiter left by mutual consent following their demotion.

The former defender becomes Huddersfield's sixth permanent manager since Carlos Corberan left the Terriers in July 2022. The club famously won promotion to the Premie League in 2018, but now they are preparing for life in the third tier of English football.

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Duff told SportsBoom.com: “Everything needs to be right. We want to give Huddersfield Town a club they can be proud of. The recruitment has to be right, the character of the players, it all needs to be aligned to create a winning culture.

“Promotion and winning is a by-product of that, so first and foremost we need to lay the foundations for all those incremental things.” I’ve been in this league before with some big football clubs – but just because we’ve been relegated doesn’t mean we’ll get promoted.”

Duff - who was capped 24 times by Northern Ireland which included a 1-0 win over England in 2005 - led fellow Yorkshire side Barnsley to the League One play-offs last season before being snapped up by Championship side Swansea City on a three-year deal. His time in Wales ended abruptly last December when he was sacked by The Swans following a slow start to the season.

He has been patiently waiting for his next opportunity since then.

Duff added: “I’ve taken on an exciting project, I know that. I’ve come in fully aware of what happened this season, but it’s an opportunity to reset – and that’s the excitement of the opportunity.

“There’s a of hard work to do, but I’m really excited. Naturally after a relegation you lose players, obviously something has gone wrong. Whether that’s because of what’s happened over the last six months or it’s been a year decline, it’s not for me to make those judgements just yet.

“But we want to rebuild this club and pull everything back together. We want create a winning environment again, but there’s going to be a lot of hard work in between. We want to get promoted next year, make no mistake about that, but I’m fully aware there is no given right.”

Duff faces a huge rebuilding phase at Huddersfield after 18 players were released by the club following their relegation.

Experienced striker Jordan Rhodes, Brahima Diarra, Connor Mahoney, Yuta Nakayama, Aaron Rowe, Charles Ondo, Giosue Bellagambi, Mustapha Olagunju, Dylan Helliwell, Archie Sheppard, David Adewoju, Shane Maroodza, Michael Acquah, Myles Bright, Ben Midgley, Hazeem Bakre, Freddie Fletcher and Aaron Ojungu have all left the John Smith’s Stadium.

“It’s when things aren’t going right, people are quite happy pointing the finger. But now we need to do the difficult part, build a winning culture and hopefully kick on from there," Duff said.

"Talk is cheap, though, yes we can say we want to win the league, but how do we win the league?

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