David Wagner

“Stressful battles halted development” – David Wagner reveals why a break from football was needed after Huddersfield Town

When David Wagner arrived in West Yorkshire from Borussia Dortmund II in 2015, no one could have envisaged him masterminding a promotion to the Premier League. But he did just that when his side beat Reading on penalties in the Championship play-off final in 2017. Despite keeping Town up in their debuting campaign, personal problems began to arise in the following season.

Huddersfield was a team who struggled to even get close to a playoff berth prior to Wagner’s arrival, however, the 16/17 transfer window proved to the turning point, likes of; Aaron Mooy, Christopher Schindler and Elias Kachunga were signed and all played a major role in their promotion campaign.

Whilst a promotion usually calls for wholesale changes to a squad, Wagner kept the faith in his side by building around the core of his playoff winning team. Aaron Mooy made his move from Manchester City permanent, joined by Steve Mounie and a whole host of signings.

Perhaps it was the adrenaline of promotion which guided Huddersfield to an unlikely survival from relegation, but David Wagner’s men took some big scalps along the way, defeating Manchester United and drawing at Stamford Bridge to confirm their stay in the Premier League.

Although it was expected that David Wagner would have been able to build on this fairytale, the German manager encountered his biggest issue, the 48-year-old felt he was no longer able to develop his skills. By contrast, current Huddersfield manager Danny Cowley has recently spoken about using the lengthy lay off from football as a time to enhance the ‘coaching curriculum’ for the whole club.

Wagner battled tooth and nail to think of new methods and styles to bring the requisite results, however, he felt he had taken Huddersfield as far as they could go, and so he left by mutual consent in January 2019.

The German, who now manages Schalke in the Bundesliga, spoke about the stress he suffered whilst managing Huddersfield in the Premier League and how he has benefitted massively from a break, he said:

“It was the right thing to do for me because if you have the feeling you can’t help any longer and you’ve got everything out of your players and it is not good enough then it is very stressful,” said Wagner, now managing Schalke, who were in a Europa League position when German football was put on hold for the pandemic.

“The biggest problem for me is that if you are in the race you can’t develop yourself to try and educate yourself and this is what I loved in my break from football,” he continued. “I was able to look to the left and to the right, so it wasn’t just about having less stress, it was about educating myself and that was interesting for me.”

Despite suffering from a stressful time in the Premier League, he admits that England holds a special place in his heart, he added:

“There are moments when I miss England because it was a great time,” he admitted. “But it’s nice to be back home and working for Schalke, one of the biggest clubs in Germany.

“This club nearly got relegated last season and now we are fighting for Europe which is a great success so far.”

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