Hughton to be permanent manager by next week.

Posted on October 22nd, 2009 | 49 Comments |

New top man
New top man
Chris Hughton will be appointed as permanent manager of Newcastle United after the weekend’s visit from Doncaster.

Apparently Chris Hughton has been offered a £250,000 a year deal which is believed to be the same package that David O’Leary turned down in August.

I have no idea why O’Leary turned down the manager’s job at Newcastle United of course, but I would guess he feels he’s worth more than £250,000 a year even as an out of work manager coming into a Championship club.

£250,000 doesn’t seem a lot to me. Okay, hang on, £250,000 a year is a fair wedge of money to me and I could certainly afford a new hat on that sort of money, but I’m talking about in relation to players on our books who’ll be earning £2,000,000 a year. But I suppose market conditions dictate salaries and some players are simply valued higher than their managers.

Anyway, I presume Hughton’s happy with the deal and is looking forward to taking charge of the club even if it is only for the rest of the season.

Hughton talked about the team and our current rough patch yesterday, saying:

“I have to get on with the job.

“We are a good side on paper and anybody who was at the game last [Tuesday] night would have seen how good we were for the majority of that match.

“You get periods of the season where you don’t get results.

“We’ve already had periods of the season where we have played not so well and got results.

“The period we are going through at the moment is one where we aren’t getting what we deserve.

“Anybody could see we deserved something from last night.

“When you aren’t getting the rub of the green you still stick to your task and that is to stick to the way we are playing and to drive on and get results.

“You look for things to turn and we need them to turn quickly.”

Hughton also had good things to say about the fans:

“They’re such a wonderful crowd that I know I don’t need to appeal to them, they do it anyway.

“The disappointing thing is that we didn’t get the result for them.

“Irrespective of what anybody says about players, it’s hard for them as well.

“They know how many turn up to see them and how vocal the fans are.

“The lads want to do well for the supporters – they were brilliant.

“They spent a fortune going to Forest and a fortune coming to Scunthorpe too.

“We’ve got to make sure that we give them more good days than bad.”

I know Hughton won’t be everyone’s first choice – he’s not even mine – but I think we should back him. He’s given us a far better start to the season than I expected and we’re in second place on equal points with West Brom at the top. There’s no denying we’ve had a poor run in the last 4 games but all managers get those and that could change on the weekend.

The appointment of Hughton will, I believe, signal that the club is unlikely to be sold this season. I’m not convinced it will actually be taken off the market but I think Ashley is now prepared to seriously consider seeing out the season, hoping for promotion and then trying to sell the club for more money next season. It’s a huge risk of course but with nobody seemingly willing to meet even his reduced price of £80m, what else can he do?

Presumably this means Colin Calderwood will be offered a permanent position too.

NUFCBlog Author: Hugh de Payen I'm a baby-boomer of the punk rock persuasion, currently exiled in Somerset for crimes committed in a previous life where locals keep trying to poison me with something called 'scrumpy'. Hates sprouts, coat-hangers, Cilla Black, ornaments, Steven Seagull movies and 50 Cent (he's not worth 10). Hugh de Payen has written 634 articles on this blog.

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49 Responses

  3. Dennis – just because your wear a striped jumper doesn’t mean to say I am scared of your catapult or your little black dog.

  4. Ive an idea folks – instead of waiting till midnight to decide I was right again – why dont we start the day by everyone saying I am right?

    Sounds good to me.

  6. Hitman, sadly I agree. It has Glenn Roeder revisited stamped all over it. What is worse is that he has been more or less set up to fail from the start because of lack of strength and depth of the squad. It’s a shame because he’s a nice guy, who has behaved impeccably and with great dignity throughout this shambles, but I can only see one outcome and it includes a P45.

  9. All he needs to do is give Lovenkrands a kick up the arse and with Jonas, we have the pace to start and worry people again. Lets give him a chance. If we convince ourselves that he’s going to fail then he will no matter what he achieves.

  10. There’s 2 things you can say about Mike Ashley….

    1. His decisions are invariably wrong

    2. He is very concictent in this….

    The 2 notable exceptions were when he employed Sir Kevin and Sir Alan – but then he screwed it up both times.

    If Ashley was in the market for employment, it would be worth employing him as a decision maker – then whatever he decided, do the opposite ….

  12. Just had a scan through last nights and now this morning posts. I’m just waiting for the “I know you are, but what am I?” and “It takes one to know one” insults to come out and it will be just like my primary school playground back in 1980.

  13. UTD111 you should have stopped at point 2. His appointments of Keegan and Shearer were a disaster.

  14. Mickeytoon – I can see why you would say that….

    But to me, they both had big problems caused by the same source – Ashley!

  15. geordie deb says:
    October 22, 2009 at 11:44 am

    “Hitman, sadly I agree. It has Glenn Roeder revisited stamped all over it. What is worse is that he has been more or less set up to fail from the start because of lack of strength and depth of the squad. It’s a shame because he’s a nice guy, who has behaved impeccably and with great dignity throughout this shambles, but I can only see one outcome and it includes a P45.”

    Deb,

    You’ve managed to pack a hell of alot of clichés into one small paragraph there.

  16. another mistake by jabba the hutt,well why change the habits of the last two years.
    chris hughton has been appointed because he comes cheap,and for no other reason that that imo.
    the sad thing is,this time next year we,ll be looking for another manage and round and round we go again.

  17. One to think about – if as the conclusion drawn from Ashleys Times comments at the weekend are that he has decided he doesnt care what people think anymore – he is dammed if he does – dammed if he doesnt.

    He may well just appoint Hughton (low wage) – get rid of all the high earners again in Jan and the summer – and operate a profitable self sustaining club.

    Pluses and minuses on this for this type of structure – but many will see this as getting much worse before it gets better.

  19. in the 1980,s mckeag and his cronies ran the same kind of scam,plead povety sell the best players and not replace them,then head towards oblivion.
    the paralells between these two regimes are frightening.

  20. Trojan – you can not compare Ashley to the McKeags, Shepherds and Halls of this world. No man in history has given as much money to this club as Mike Ashley without taking a penny out.

  22. stardust,i know what your saying in some respects,but i just cannot see anything good coming from mike ashley,s involvement in newcastle in the long run.
    he just doesn,t have the personality,drive or wherewithal to take this club forward imo.
    sorry being negative guys,but ive never felt this pessimistic about the toon in a long time.

  23. An accountant always takes the financial view and cannot see the wider picture…..

    That’s why, for example, a Finance Director is only one member of a wider board.

    Managing any business – not just NUFC is about a lot more than money…

    Ashley should buy himself the “boys book of communication” for xmas – or better still, hire a professional who knows how to communicate without “misleading”….

  24. Stardust said – “Trojan – you can not compare Ashley to the McKeags, Shepherds and Halls of this world. No man in history has given as much money to this club as Mike Ashley without taking a penny out.”

    Not through want of trying though. You just know, if he could he would. Ashley is one greedy man at heart. Remember Chelsea went for £140m. What makes a Championship team worth only £40m less than a club like Chelsea?

  26. Micky T – “What makes a Championship team worth only £40m less than a club like Chelsea?”

    Time, prices generally rise with it, plus the fact that English football clubs are the most attractive from a global publicity point of view.

    And “Not through want of trying though. You just know, if he could he would. Ashley is one greedy man at heart.” simply has no foundation whatsoever – you’re better than that Micky.

  27. Micky Toon says:
    October 22, 2009 at 2:50 pm

    “What makes a Championship team worth only £40m less than a club like Chelsea?”

    That was six years ago Micky. It’s worth around £400 million now.

  28. say hughton is appointed till the end of the season,if we were to get promoted then what?
    do we give hughton a longer contract,or say thanks very much and bring someone else in?.
    would hughton be good enough to manage in the premiership?
    we know from experience hughton,s caretaker stints at the top level,left alot to be desired.
    is it time mike ashley decided one way or the other to plan long term,and bring in experienced manager on a long term contract?
    i can see us becoming a yo yo club,if we dont start to have a long term plan,and continue with this quick fix culture.
    we also have an owner who only seems interested when we,re winning a few games,or if it is not costing him anything in transfer fees.

  29. TROJAN 69 says:
    October 22, 2009 at 3:23 pm

    “we know from experience hughton,s caretaker stints at the top level,left alot to be desired.”

    No we don’t Trojan. He was actually quite a successful caretaker manager at Spurs.

  30. RE – 27, Randy Lerner bought Villa for only 60-odd million. Why are we worth almost 40 million more!?

  31. I think we all know CH is not the long term answer that will get the team winning at the top level.
    However, what the club needs more than anything is stability. CH can provide that, for the short to mid-term.
    I see boro have appointed Strachan. I’m not convinced of his management skills, he seems to do ok at Championship level, but cannot perform in the top league.
    Would he have done a job at NUFC? Perhaps, but we would have been looking for someone to replace him if we got promoted at the end of the season. If not straight away then at least after a season in the top flight.
    Hull fans are asking for Phil Brown to go. This is shocking. He’s done brilliantly for them and now they are asking for him to be sacked? It will happen though as clubs seem to be ran by spineless fools that just bow down to whatever mood the crowd is in. What a club needs is an owner and a chairman who will stand by their manager and ignore what the crowd are braying.
    Just think if ManU had done this when they first appointed Fergie. The Mancs were crying for him to be sacked in his first or second season at the club, I can’t remember exactly, and yet the board said, we won’t sack him, we’ll give him a chance as he is actually pretty good at this management lark. The rest is history.
    If the people who run the clubs actually knew what they were doing then less managers would be sacked.

    Anyway my point being, get CH in for the short term, until Ashley and his lot are gone. Then we might actually be able to attract someone who wants to work at the club because it’s a good career move and not just someone who is out of work and will take anything, ie JFK and David O’Dreary.

  32. Londonfife – Same goes for Birmingham, but if you’ve ever been to Birmingham you’ll know why their two clubs were sold so cheaply. The buyer had to have some incentive to spend his time there.

  34. mickytoon,phil brown has done okay at hull but he,s made the same mistakes as mike ashley,ashley wore the toon shirt to matches where as phil brown dyed his face the same colour as hull,s home kit.

  36. aye i would take gordon ower chris,he,s got experience and wont take any crap from prima donna,s.

  37. “Gordon, can we have a quick word please?”

    Strachan: “Velocity.”

    Hard not to admire that like. And he just seems like a proper football bloke. Struggled a bit with Cov but they were poor and made the best of a bad job at Saints. Celtic sort of speaks for itself (relative to the difference in quality).

  38. Worky
    ‘Deb, You’ve managed to pack a hell of alot of clichés into one small paragraph there.’

    Cliches are my forte Worky

  39. Not so keen on Strachan myself. Have always pidgeon holed him as as a sarky, stroppy, perpetually fizzing little scottish firebrand.

  43. hughton should tell ashley to stick his job up his arse anywat to be honest.
    no manager should have to work under those conditions to be fair.

  46. Micky Toon
    Agree with much of what you say.Would add another name and club to that of Man U and Ferguson that is Sir Bobby Robson and Ipswich where the fans were also calling for his head.
    In both cases The rest is History as they say

  47. i have just found this site http://www.search2give.co.uk/index.php

    basically everytime you search for something they give a little bit to a charity of your choice i know thie is off topic but i thought if you use your search engine quite a lot then you may aswell (if you wish) give a little to charity without having to spend any of your own money

  48. Doncaster Rovers manager, Sean O’Driscoll, on the upcoming clash at St James’s Park. It’s a tautology that is almost worthy of Keegan or Robson.

    “The fans there are fanatical”.

  49. Stardust @20

    You’ve got to be Joking!!

    The man has made profit on EVERY Transfer window since he came to the club, He made a loan to the club to clear a debt that would have flagged up in due diligence, however i’m still to be convinced that this loan is gonna be written off.

    the consortium that Purchased Man City came to MA first but refused his £500,000,000 price tag (a double ya money deal for MA) If he’d come in at a reasonable price he’d have been gone with a tasty 50 mill in his back pocket for a few months Work!! However he was Greedy and tried it on.

    As Excelsior has said on many an occasion he’s a chancer who was in it to try tart up an ailing brand and flog it for a profit.