Hughton reminisces on being a Hammer.

Posted on October 22nd, 2010 | 91 Comments |

Hughton the Hammer!
Hughton the Hammer!
On the verge of Newcastle United’s clash with the jellied eel munchers of West Ham, manager and east end boy, Chris Hughton, has been reminiscing on his days as a West Ham player.

Hughton was born in Forest Gate, East London, which is deep in West Ham country, and attended St Bonaventure’s school in the area, which was also attended by Jermain Defoe. Like Defoe, Hughton’s playing career is undoubtedly most closely associated with North London’s Tottenham Hotspur, though Hughton did spend over a year playing for his hometown club at the beginning of the ‘nineties.

Speaking on those times, Hughton recalled:

“I’ve still got a lot of friends there.

“I wasn’t there for that long a period – just over a year. I was there 90/91 – I went at Christmas and played through the rest of that season.

“We got promotion and got to the semi-finals of the FA Cup.

“That was the semi-final where Tony Gale got sent off, and we lost to Nottingham Forest. They played Spurs in what people will remember as the Gazza final.

“They were good times – but I was there at a good time. We got promotion from the old Second Division to the First Division.”

Comrade Hughton then moved on to what he sees as the common working class traditions of both West Ham and his current club, saying:

“There are similarities between the supporters.

“They’re very much a working-class support – the sort who will support their team through thick and thin.

“They’re a support which isn’t afraid to say what they feel, but they very much get behind the team.”

It should also be a very evenly balanced game at Upton Park / The Boleyn Ground tomorrow. For Toonsy’s excellent preview of the match, click here.

NUFCBlog Author: workyticket workyticket has written 1091 articles on this blog.

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Comment on this post

91 Responses

  1. Blinking ‘eck. So he’s been at Spurs, West Ham and Newcastle.

    Has he ever actually won owt? (In the top division).

  2. DJG says:
    October 22, 2010 at 6:28 pm

    “Blinking ‘eck. So he’s been at Spurs, West Ham and Newcastle.

    Has he ever actually won owt? (In the top division).”

    Two FA Cups and a UEFA Cup with Tottenham, DJG.

  5. DJG says:
    October 22, 2010 at 6:34 pm

    “When was that? As a player? Im guessing FA cup was as coach was it.”

    Those were the major trophies he won as a player, DJG. The FA Cups were in 1981 and 1982, and the UEFA Cup was in 1984.

  8. DJG says:
    October 22, 2010 at 6:39 pm

    “Oh, did Spurs not win the FA cup more recently or am I thinking about the wrong club?”

    Erm, FA Cup winners 1991, League Cup winners 1999 and 2008, DJG. They also won the Charity Shield and were runners up in the League Cup a couple of times (2002 and 2009).

  9. icedog says:
    October 22, 2010 at 6:42 pm

    “good photo of hoots WORKY,the logo? did they not gan bust,or am i thinking of diff firm”

    BAC Windows? Divven’t knaa, Icedog. I’m good on football, but I’m shite on window companies!

  14. WORKY seems they would have to,got to have big bucks to have oot to do with footy these days

  16. That twitter bloke says Jose Enrique out for a while and Chris houghton last game tomorrow with Alan pardew next manager

  17. I think thats probably a load of bollox butI’d rather have JK back than Pardew, he’s hopeless.

  18. Pardew would be a disaster, can’t see what he’ll give us over hughton to be honest
    Interesting news about Pompey, makes me think that could have been us if FFS was still around – Ashleys been a twat but at least he’s putting the club on an even keel financially
    Can see a load of clubs going to the wall in next few years, if Liverpool get relegated they will be in a lot more trouble than toon were

  19. Wow, what horrible rumors about CH & Jose. Must be the work of some Magpie hater, maybe one of Carroll’s ex-girlfriends or purchases. None of my coaches would put us through any drills the day before a game that could lead to injury. Basically you walk through the strategies and do some penalty kick and/or throw in practice.
    If a coach grinds his players 7 days a week, he will not win many and not long be employed.

    So if Ponpey shut down, what happens to the Championship standings?
    Is there an automatic promotion, games wiped out, or what?

  20. Hughton has done nowt but good for the club.

    Can we not show a decent bloke a bit of loyalty, If Shepherd hadnt taken Bobbys authority by announcing his forthcoming departure we wouldnt be here and nor would we if we hadnt pushed Roeder after an injury ruined season in which we reached the latter stages in europe and the league cup and finished midtable.

    Any other club would have given him another season, Like Everton did with Moyes after they finished 4th bottom and look how thats worked out.

    Fcuking hell im preying for a win tomorrow, The lack of stability relegated us last time and it looks like the fat man has YET AGAIN failed to learn his lesson…

  21. BeeGuy – whats the rumours re: CH and jose, if it’s true he’s done some crap training exercise day before game and injured what is prob our best player I’ll not be happy. Doubt Ashley will be to pleased either, maybe that twitter bloke has a point after all, however please do not replace him with Alan par dew – he’s a complete cvnt

  22. Injuries happen all the time in training,strains can happen picking up a bag of shopping ya can’t really blame Hughton for that unless he had them playing full contact rugby or something ;-)

  23. This Kevin/Andy twitter thingy must be a piss take surely:

    “My kids keep asking why Andy has girls hair. I was worried he’d get angry, but he just laughed it off.”

    “I’m currently winning Monopoly, Andy hasn’t been to jail yet”

    “Porridge just came on, Andy’s face sunk so I flicked over.”

  24. that rumour is rubbish, if jose is injured thats hard to take but injurys happen and ive no worries bout using shane ferguson at all, as for pardew he wud b worse than houghton, this is what i saying the other day to all the ppl calling for hoots to go what the hell makes u think fatman wud appiont a top manager come on man think bout it

  27. f**king hate andy gray what a twat his match preview saying west ham are a better team and should win match comfortably

  28. Toonsy,apparently a deal was sorted then the former owner moved the goal posts on payment of money he was owed at the last minute, I reckon he’ll move them back again tho.

    CC… I’d take it all with a pinch of salt,they were wrong about loads over the summer and most of the stuff they were right about I’d already heard or read elsewhere.They deal in rumours nowt more, law of probability says they have to be right occasionally.

  29. CC says:
    October 22, 2010 at 8:39 pm

    “This Kevin/Andy twitter thingy must be a piss take surely:”<<<< aye its stardust and his alias troy

  52. completely off topic, but does anyone know how much ticket prices are for the newcastle arsneal cup match for a 16 year old?

  53. jay jay………aye apparently we can’t have more because of persistent standing of Toon fans in previous seasons…tw@ts

  56. Not for the first time I disagree with Andy Grey. If we put our absolute strongest side out compared to Hammers strongest side, on paper I would say we had a better team or at the very least not much in it. The trouble id when do we ever have our strongest team available.

  57. These rumors about hughton getting the boot are rubbish , the guy is on a low wage and replacing him would mean Ashley forking out more money because no other manager would take the job for the money that Hoots is on . Sacking him would cause unrest in the camp and Ashley knows what happened last time he went down that road and the simple truth is financially he won’t take that risk again . If we are in the bottom 3 after xmas then that might change though .

  58. Agree with most on here. There is absolutely no way that Ashley would be considering replacing Hughton already if we lose tomorrow. Yes, West Ham are bottom of the league right now, but they’re in a good run of form at the moment, unlike us. The Pardew thing would be total crap

    MA and the board have learned their lessons I believe. They won’t rush into drastic decisions. They will wait to see where we are around Christmas time if Hughton is to be replaced. Although, I think there’s a possibility, however small, that if he’s replaced he still might stick around as a coach. Lord knows we need plenty of those at the moment.

  59. I really hope that Jose Enrique is not injured, as the Bull is pretty vital for us right now. However, I would have complete faith in Kadar OR Ferguson taking his place if injured. I much prefer that to seeing Perch or Simpson thrown out there when they’re already suspect in their natural positions!

  60. On the subject of our right backs, I fear that we may be seeing Perch start yet again tomorrow after reading some of Hughton’s comments in the last couple days between being unsure if Danny Simpson is ready to start a PL match and also saying that we have a lot of players who are still adjusting to the Premier League and need more time.

    Ugh, this is terrible. How long was Ryan Taylor a regular right back for Wigan? Hughton is always looking for players with the right experience, right? Raylor must just not get along with Hughton or something.

  61. I realize that I’m putting all this up when everybody’s already asleep, but its not even 10:00 yet over here in Florida. Looking forward to watching the game tomorrow on TV!!

    Howay the Lads!

  70. Yeah i do!

    But im a bit f**ked up like that batty :)

    I also thought we ‘d get something at old trafford first game. I just cant ever say we will do anything but win! Im just an optimistic kinda guy and it does my wife’s nut in :)

  71. Got this of a mackem…
    To the tune of Dean Martins “Amore”…
    When a girl hits the floor and it’s not Collymore ANDY CARROLL,
    When you’re glassed in the face by a mag with no pace ANDY CARROLL,
    When your cars set on fire called a knob and a liar ANDY CARROLL,
    When you’re either in jail hitting birds or on bail ANDY CARROLL :roll:

  72. …and I replied with this

    When pr!cks make up a song cos you keep doing wrong ANDY CARROLL,
    When you male them look daft with your skill and your graft ANDY CARROLL,
    When you make them go red when you score with your head ANDY CARROLL,
    You’ll make them look dumb when we win V the scum ANDY CARROLL

  73. We win win the Hammers,and i am also confident that carroll will finally score. who knows,he might score a hat-trick later. ;)

  74. Purely belter that Rich :)

    God I feel like shite :(

    Too many bottles of dog :(

    Ah well, more today :)

  75. Toonsy…what makes ya bad makes ya better ;-)
    and Gazza was arrested in my village on Friday…fame at last :-)

    Toon fans on soccer AM

  76. AndrewT says:
    October 23, 2010 at 2:52 am
    I really hope that Jose Enrique is not injured, as the Bull is pretty vital for us right now. However, I would have complete faith in Kadar OR Ferguson taking his place if injured. I much prefer that to seeing Perch or Simpson thrown out there when they’re already suspect in their natural positions!

    Correct!!

    Does anyone think this low wage Hoots is on, (not by normal people standards by the way), might be a stumbling block to finding a decent assistant and Ashley might have to give him a new contract already. Which I doubt he would want to do as he could be sharpening his axe for Jan if results are poor.

  77. DJG…thats why I thought it might be Campbell as the cheap option but we need experience and preferably an attacker imo.

  82. Why doesn’t C.H give R.Taylor a game at RW. I know he wants to play RB but unlike Guthrie I think he could actually do a decent job there and certainly he can do more than just set plays. This defending wouldn’t matter so much and although not as pacy, I think he would just also be Beckham like in delivering before being challenged and big Andy would have more to feed off than Routledge surely.

  84. Also with the height we’ve now got up for set plays it seems rediculous not having a dead ball player in the side.

  86. Jay Jay – My kebab and 12 bottles of dog have left the building aswell ;)

    I wish they could have done so in an orderly fashion though and not in the rush they seemed to be in :lol:

  87. @DJG 82: Well i have been mentioning that for quite some time on giving the RW to Ryan taylor over Wayne~~

    but it seems CH doesn’t visit this website at all. ;)

  88. Looks Like Grant might employ dirty trick on chris foy in today match. :lol: :lol:

    Avram Grant has warned West Ham may have to start getting nasty with referees if they continue to pay the price for being a soft touch.

    The Hammers have been on the wrong end of a string of bad decisions so far this season, the most recent being a disallowed Frederic Picquionne goal that cost them victory at Wolves last weekend.

    Grant is convinced that teams who are “aggressive” towards match officials end up earning an advantage. And he admitted the bottom-of-the-table Hammers will have to consider a Jekyll and Hyde personality switch if things do not start improving soon.

    “Everybody needs to be aware that teams who don’t behave sportingly and always go to the referee have an advantage over teams that behave nicely,” Grant said.

    “Last week it cost us two points and because there are so many decisions against us I start to think that because we are nice the other team has an advantage.

    “I don’t want to think it is because my players behave well and they don’t jump on the referees and we on the bench are very sporting – but it is affecting us.

    “It is not in my way to say ‘Scott Parker, next time slide-tackle the referee’ – but I will think about this if I see it continue.

  89. AngelOfDeath says:
    October 23, 2010 at 11:22 am
    @DJG 82: Well i have been mentioning that for quite some time on giving the RW to Ryan taylor over Wayne~~

    but it seems CH doesn’t visit this website at all.

    Hughton has one train of thought man. Should R.Taylor play RB or not. He won’t have even thought about it. ;)

  90. The lad played on both wings for Wigan in dosens of prem league match ffs. It’s not like he’s never played there.

  91. Al good Batty Cheers Fella-Back upto the toon in 8 days for my birthday-looking forward to it big time.