David Wagner is keen to let supporters know why he’s surrounded himself with captains in the Huddersfield Town squad.
Five of Town’s senior squad were captains at their previous clubs and another, Dean Whitehead, has skippered Town when Mark Hudson has been absent.
Hudson skippered his previous club, Cardiff City, while Martin Cranie had the armband at Barnsley.
Then new arrivals Chris Loewe (Kaiserslauten), Michael Hefele (Dynamo Dresden) and record £1.8m signing Christopher Schindler (1860 Munich) were all captains in Germany.
Wagner explained he’s been keen to address Town’s inconsistency, which includes all sorts of elements from fitness to quality to experience.
“We always had in our mind to bring in players with character – players who have been involved at the top of their divisions and not just fighting relegation,” said the head coach.
“That’s why we have made the signings we have made (from abroad), because they are top-class quality players and top-class characters.
“Plenty of them have been captains in their clubs and they have experience of playing at the top of the table.
“This was why we went for them, their leadership and their character, and it was a bonus to realise they were desperate to come and play in England and be a part of what we want to achieve here.”
With the first friendly at Guiseley just hours away, Wagner continued: “I think they are also players who like our play and our style and they are willing to come out of their comfort zones as players.
“We want to bring the very interesting British culture and mentality together with the German professionalism, to connect the two of them.
“As a professional in England you live in an extreme comfort zone and to work on your borderline, the things you have to improve, you have to be prepared to come out of your comfort zone.
“We have a group who are open to this, both those who were here before and those we have added in and we don’t, any longer, want to give ourselves any limits – we like to work on our borderline.
“By this I don’t mean taking 10 more free-kicks after training, or something like that, I mean working on the hard things and the stuff each player doesn’t like.
“If they do that, then they will all improve their quality and I will accept every result which comes our way, because I am totally convinced we will be successful.”
