Huddersfield Town's Darren Moore on managing social media as well as a football team

It is only 12 years since Moore last pulled on his boots, for Burton Albion after a career which also took in Barnsley, Bradford City and Doncaster Rovers amongst others. But the way the game has changed in that time, it must feel like a lifetime ago.

It is not just on the field, either. Social media has been part of the transformation too.

Even Moore – who does not go in for Facebook, X, Instagram and all that jazz – has been dragged in by its influence recently. His reticence towards the platforms is matched by chairman Kevin Nagle's enthusiasm for using the technology to communicate with his club's fans, whether he is in California or West Yorkshire.

Nagle is prolific on X – formerly known as Twitter – and has been posting video diaries of his time in the region to keep fans up to speed on the support he is trying to provide Moore and the recruitment team during the January transfer window and his ongoing work to push the club forward in other directions too.

Last week Moore was answering questions about Nagle posting a tweet which simply read "NOT GOOD ENOUGH!!" on the final whistle of the 1-1 draw with Plymouth Argyle. Comments which would once have been kept within the confines of the pub or the director's lounge can now become instant public pronouncements – for good and for bad.

Nagle is not the only one able to speak directly to supporters through the medium, with many players taking to it as well. It opens young men still honing life-skills to morale-boosting praise but also crushing criticism and vile abuse, so Moore sees it as his role to help them negotiate a world he keeps his distance from.

It is all part of an approach which puts huge store by human relationships.

"There's so much more media coverage and in-depth insight into the game, analysis, all of those kind of things going hand in hand which you've got to deal with on a social level," he reflects.

"Players are dealing now with social media more so than ever. So much has changed about the game since I started and as a present-day manager you've got to be aware of all that.

"One of the biggest things you've got to maintain as a manager is to keep the focus when potentially there's so much noise when the team's doing well or not so well.

"I never get too high in the highs and I don't get too low in the lows because it's a competitive league we're in and we have to keep that focus."

The demands of a fanbase hungry to learn more about their team and its players can be exhausting at times, but history suggests outsourcing the job to someone else can backfire badly. Fans want authenticity.

The vast majority are very good about it but as with any medium, there are always idiots to be aware of, and to protect players from.

It is just one more thing Moore and his managerial colleagues have to be on top of.

"I'm not a manager that's on the social platforms because I've not got time for it but I have to be aware that my players and staff may be, so I've had to receive information and training to be aware of what they may be faced with so I can adopt a support mechanism and a vocabulary with them," he says. “I let them see they're good players and part of a unique profession where they're watched by thousands.

"They have an ability and they've come through too many hurdles to not be good players so they need the support mechanism from the manager."

As an extremely personable individual in his everyday life, it will come as no surprise to learn that Moore's whole coaching ethos is based around his relationships with players who he likes to learn about as people as well as just footballers.

The 49-year-old has always viewed himself as a training-ground manager, and sees individual work with players as crucial.

"I think it's so important getting to know people and breaking down that player to see what more he can give us," argues a manager who, for better or for worse, enjoys testing players out in positions they are not used to as part of his learning process.

"It's talking to him about it then physically working with them and showing them (how to do it). I think it's so important.

"I'll consistently do that because we want to see improvement.

"I just believe in this industry the only way improvement comes is on the training ground and it's probably the part of the club where the most time is spent as a group. There's always a learning process going on on a daily basis.

"Leaders are not produced in one day, it's consistent work on a daily basis."

And that work, like Moore's interest in his players, is not limited to when they are on the grass.