Chris Hughton on Tiote, Carroll and that transfer.
Posted on April 18th, 2011 | 12 Comments |
Resuming the Chris Hughton’s interview with Richard Keys and Andy Grey on ‘Talk Sport’, this final section begins with more memories of Newcastle United, including what Hughton thinks of Colin Calderwood, did he realise how good Cheick Tiote when he signed him, working with Andy Carroll, did he always think that he was going to leave in January and more.
Richard Keys: “Here’s one from a Hibs fan, you’ve partially answered this. ‘Irish’ and Andy would just like to ask Chris what he thinks of Colin Calderwood?”
Chris Hughton: “Colin was very, very good for me, and I think that with all managers that you will speak to it’s so important that you have somebody alongside you not only that you trust and you like, but you know is very good at his job. he had a difficult start at Hibs but I was incredibly confident that what he would do is turn it around, and that’s what he has done. I think for any Hibs supporters that there is certainly bigger and better things from him. He’s not only a very, very good football man but a good person as well.”
Andy Gray: “Anthony asks did Chris realise just how good Cheick Tiote would be when he signed him?”
Chris Hughton: “That’s a very good question. Probably no, because you just don’t know. I followed him for two years, and where I was fortunate was that I brought Graham Carr (Newcastle United’s chief scout) into the club and Graham Carr’s a chief scout that’s got great experience and when he came in he also knew him and had followed him for a while. I spoke to Steve McClaren and when I spoke to Steve, Steve said “he could be anything, what you won’t do is lose your value on him”. Steve didn’t always play him. Steve played quite a tactical game and that I couldn’t understand. But he seemed a player who seemed so suited to the English game, the English Premiership, and he has been a revelation. At times he needs to curb his enthusiasm.”
Andy Gray: “Nothing wrong with that.”
Chris Hughton: “No there’s not, and the day he walked into training I think everybody looked at him and thought ‘I think we’ve got a bit of a player here’”
Richard Keys: “Chris, how good could Andy Carroll be?”
Chris Hughton: “I can actually remember not long after he went (to Liverpool), the goalkeeping coach, Paul Barron, coming on this station and you asked him the same question, and he said “he could be whatever he wants to be”. I think what you did see this week on Monday night (when Carroll scored two goals for Liverpool against Man City) is a sample of what he can do. Of course, he is prolific in the air, that’s something I think everybody’s accepted, but he has a terrific left foot and is capable of scoring those kind of goals that we saw on Monday night. But also, it was a game where Suarez probably had more involvement, more touches than Andy Carroll and what he can do is play in these types of games, where perhaps he hasn’t done anything for a period of time in the game, but there’s an end product.
“He is one that, if I look at the season when we went down, he is one who would have benefitted from that season. We’d lost Mark Viduka and Michael Owen at the end of the season before. If we’d stayed in the Premiership then possibly, because it was an area where we were short, possibly another striker might have come in. The fact that we didn’t meant that Andy had a full season at Championship level where we saw him grow and develop. He even surprised me I have to say, after a good pre season (on Newcastle’s subsequent return to the Premiership), the first game of the season, at Old Trafford, where we lost 3-0 but we picked some good moments from that game and we were encouraged by lots of things. The biggest encouragement was the performance of Andy Carroll in that game.”
Andy Gray: “What does he need to improve do you think, Chris? You know him better than most.
Chris Hughton: “I think as a real ‘number 9’ there will be times when I think with the systems we’re now playing and games that he will be playing in a 4-3-3 where he will be a little bit isolated upfront, and it was something that we worked on quite alot with his ball retention in tight areas, small sided games, that he’s got to continue to be a good link up player. If he’s playing in a two where you’re relying on balls getting into the box and getting across people, then that’s a particular strength of his. But there are going to be the tough games where he’s not going to see alot of the ball, and every touch he has is got to be an important touch and he’s got to keep possession.
Andy Gray: “I suppose to that end, he couldn’t have a better master at the moment than Mr. Dalglish at retaining the ball.”
Chris Hughton: “Well he’s also got some fantastic players around him, and a club at the moment where there’s a real good feel. I think that (Luis) Suarez will help him, because I think that will take some of the pressure off Andy. I can see the two of them having a really good relationship together, and they are very much different types of players. But going back to last Monday, I think that Andy showed the type of player that he is.”
Richard Keys: “Did he want the number 9 jersey at Newcastle?”
Chris Hughton: “Yes he did. He’d asked me for it some time actually before I gave it to him, but that’s the type of individual and personality that he is. The reason why he’s able to go to Liverpool, and I think be successful, is because he is a player that doesn’t have fear in his game. When the TV cameras on homed in on him just when they were about to kick off on Monday night, knowing Andy as I do, I knew he was desperate to get that game started,and I think he’s enjoying every minute. But he’s a player that doesn’t have fear in his game. Possibly that’s something that comes as you get older and you develop in the game and there’s more pressure on you, but at this moment I think he’s just enjoying every moment.
Richard Keys: “What was he like when you said ‘listen son, you can be a good player, but you’ve got to sort yourself out off the pitch’. Does he take advice readily?”
Chris Hughton: “Yes he does, but he’s a young lad, he’s a local lad, and I think we’ve seen this situation on numerous occaisions when sombody has around them alot of the people that they were brought up with and they become pivotal to that crowd and that group of people, and he has made mistakes, but he is certianly one who has been able to put his hand up. What he has been able to do, which is the most important thing is he’s been able to make the improvements where it counts and that’s on the pitch.”
Andy Grey: “I’m guessing that Newcastle fans wouldn’t like to hear this, but do you think now, if you’re sitting on the outside looking in, do you think for Andy’s sake, that he probably needed to move from Newcastle?”
Chris Hughton: “No, I think where I see Newcastle and where Newcastle are capable, and can be, are very much a stable Premiership club that I think over the next few years can make big strides. So I don’t think necessarily that he had to go. I think he will take full advantage of the fact he’s not in his home town. The advantages, of course, are that he’s in a new environment, he’s away from an environment that has caused him some problems in the past. But I wouldn’t necessarily say that where maybe in some circumstances you might say that somebody had to go.”
Richard Keys: “Do you think he was always going to leave in January?”
Chris Hughton: “No I don’t. I think the club wanted to keep him, I think the supporters certainly wanted to keep him, and of course, the management and the management staff certainly wanted to keep him because of the quality that he is. I think that he left Newcastle for one reason, and that was the huge fee that he left there for.”
Richard Keys: “So that was just too much to resist?”
Chris Hughton: “I think everybody was astounded at the time at the value. I think, and hope, for the lad’s sake, and of course for Liverpool’s sake as well, that everyone will look back on it and say ‘That’s been very, very good business.”
Richard Keys (to Andy Gray): “What is that like, Andy, when you move for big money?”
Andy Gray: “Exciting, no pressure. No, I think listening to Chris talk about him he sounds like he’s got his head in the right place and he’s a lad who can handle it. I certainly never bothered about it when it happened to me. I just concentrated on playing football and I’m getting the feeling that he (Carroll) will do exactly the same.”
The talk then turned to general banter in the studio about who would be the player of the year, who’d be doing the London marathon etc etc, and that was it!
The End.
NUFCBlog Author: workyticket
workyticket has written 1095 articles on this blog.
Good work on this Worky.
And very interesting, even if it’s a pair of chumps doing the interviewing.