Hughton v Pardew: managerial death-match
Posted on May 11th, 2011 | 22 Comments |
It is said that you can’t compare apples with oranges, although I think that’s bunk. I compared apples with oranges the other day and oranges are clearly better.
The point, though, is that if you’re going to make any sort of comparison between things, the circumstances of the comparison should be fairly similar or you’re not really going to be able to make any sort of valid comparison at all. It would be like comparing a bulldozer to an Amazonian tree frog: they’re such vastly different things that comparisons are pointless.
If, for example, we wanted to try and judge Alan Shearer’s ability as a manager we’d be hard pushed to do so. Forget for one moment his lack of experience and the fact that he spent most of the time since retiring from football sat on a sofa, we can’t compare him to another manager unless that manager took over the same team in the same circumstances. Which of course is impossible, so it would render any attempted comparisons subjective.
So please bear that in mind as I make an attempt to compare Alan Pardew with Chris Hughton. There is a lot of subjectivity and opinion in it.
The Circumstances
On 6th December 2010, Chris Hughton was sacked as Newcastle manager and on 9th December 2010 Alan Pardew was appointed to the job. The reason Mike Ashley gave for the change of manager was that he wanted someone with ‘more experienced’ to take the team forward, which is of course a load of cobblers. Looking at Alan Pardew’s experience from some angles, you might just be able to justify his ‘more experienced’ tag but it’s marginal at best and I simply don’t believe that’s the reason he replaced Hughton. Had Ashley appointed Jol or Redknapp or Moyes or O’Neill then the ‘more experience’ would be clear, but Pardew? I’m not so sure.
It’s a bit like me saying I’m more experienced at making pastry than my cat. It’s true but only on account of me having opposable thumbs – if you really want someone experienced at making pastry you’re better off with Gordon Ramsey.
Something else prompted Hughton’s sacking in my opinion, although we may never find out what.
Not that there’s much point fretting about it I suppose; Hughton was sacked and Pardew was appointed and we may as well get on with things because that isn’t going to change.
The Stats
If I was to include Hughton’s Championship season stats in the figures he’d knock Alan Pardew into oblivion, but then I’d leave myself open to criticism about the Premier League being a much tougher prospect than the Championship and we’re back to that apples and oranges thing again.
So, just using this season’s Premier League, the stats are as follows (as of the day of posting this article):
| Chris Hughton | Alan Pardew | |
|---|---|---|
| Played | 17 | 20 |
| Won | 6 | 6 |
| Drew | 4 | 7 |
| Lost | 7 | 7 |
| Win % | 35.29 | 30.00 |
| Non-Loss % | 58.82 | 65.00 |
| Loss % | 41.18 | 35.00 |
Looking at the pure stats, there isn’t much in it. Hughton has the better rate of wins but Pardew has the better rate of avoiding losing. It really would be quite churlish to try and separate them on the 2010/2011 Premier League stats.
The People
Pardew and Hughton are two very different people. Hughton was quiet, unassuming and modest whereas Pardew is talkative, arrogant and much more ‘in your face’.
Hughton’s aim seemed to be to keep as much out of the press as possible, preferring to handle matters of team discipline behind closed doors. Pardew on the other hand is not afraid to come out and openly bollock a player in public.
You can take your pick as to which one of those approaches you prefer. Some may feel that a public bollocking has a better affect on players and others may feel that such things are best done in private.
Transfers
This is the bit where we really struggle to make any valid comparisons. Hughton has already proved himself in the transfer market: under his tenure we saw the acquisition of Tiote, Ben Arfa, Williamson etc. and we saw the maturing of the likes of Colo, Enrique, Carroll and Jonas as players.
Pardew has yet to be tested in that area and this summer may prove crucial for those who are yet to make their mind up about the man. I don’t think he did himself any favours by saying he’d absolutely, no way, ever sell Andy Carroll and they he was sold anyway. That does little in terms of trust between fans and managers (and that’s valid even if you thought we should have sold him for £35m).
Conclusion
I will make no attempt to hide that I preferred Chris Hughton’s unassuming attitude and the way he dealt with controversial issues behind closed doors. Yet I also have to concede that in terms of what happens on the pitch there is little to choose between both managers.
Thus, Your Honours, I record an open verdict until we see how the summer transfer negotiations go. Although to a certain extent it doesn’t matter and this is rendered to little more than a point of discussion. Pardew is the current manager of Newcastle United and we’d better hope he does a good job because we’re powerless to change things.
What do you think?
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.
In the tranfers section you seemed to forget to mention the couple of questionable signings Hughton made…
Routledge, Perch, Campbell etc..
I think you are right though there is not much to choose between them at present, I myself still prefer Hughton due to him having the full support of the squad and fans. He brought us straight back up and that give him a bit of a special relationship with the club. Altough I was never convinced of his tactics (although were improving) and he seemed to leave it too late to make subs to change a game.
As you have stated we have Pardew now so lets give some support and hope he does a good job!