New Huddersfield Town owner Kevin Nagle admits he 'barely' knew club existed

The new owner of Huddersfield Town has admitted he "barely" knew the club existed just ten days before buying it.

Kevin Nagle, an American businessman and investor who also owns the Sacramento Republic team in California, completed his takeover of the club on Thursday, leaving him with 100% share ownership.

Previous owner Dean Hoyle sold the Terriers after 14 years at the helm, after they avoided relegation from the Championship last season having brought back manager Neil Warnock to oversee their survival.

At his first press conference since taking over, Nagle said: "In about ten days I went from barely knowing Huddersfield existed - and I don't mean that pejoratively - to buying it.

"It's not just the club that impressed me though, it's the community - it reminds me of where I grew up and I really related to it."

Nagle described Warnock, who recently agreed to stay in post as manager for next season, as "fantastic", saying he had a "brilliant" mind and could "charismatically bring everyone together".

He went on to say that the first focus for investment at the club would be on improving the fan experience on match days, as well as improving the stadium as a "community asset".

"The community should be able to enjoy it and appreciate it," he said. "We have concerts but we should have more of that. We could do another 30-40 a year without affecting the pitch too much."

He also alluded to more support for Town's women's team, and finding a way to "tap into" the academy facilities and improve player retention.

"I think more than anything else it's critical to develop your own players, especially after Brexit made it harder to bring in ready-made players," he said.

"From what I can see... there's potential to bring in a lot of extraordinary young players if we can give them a reason to come to our academy."

Nagle was more guarded on the prospect buying players however, saying there was "a lot of poor return on investment" in the Championship.

"Neil knew coming in what we had and was perfectly comfortable with it," he said.

"My feeling is if we make any changes on our budget, we're doing a lot of deficit spending now, and it's no criticism of previous administrations but we need to figure things out."

Nagle also hinted at a potential TV deal surrounding his takeover.

Asked if he had taken inspiration from Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney's ownership of Wrexham United, and the subsequent documentary covering their takeover, he said: "You might hear we're working on something that might relate to that.

"We'll talk about that a little bit later."

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