Norwich bound?Today’s Independent newspaper is reporting that Chris Hughton is in talks with Norwich about their managerial vacancy, following the defection of Paul Lambert to Aston Villa.
At one stage it was thought that Chris was in the running for the West Bromwich Albion job, but that all cooled down and it looks like Norwich could now be his destination.
This could be a really good move for Chris, who has once again proven himself to be a good manager by taking Birmingham to last season’s playoffs on a shoestring budget due to limited resources. Birmingham’s financial problems are well known, and Norwich must be a better opportunity for him. And of course, the catering is better at Norwich given that Delia Smith makes all the pies personally, erm allegedly! ;-) He would also be taking over a good, competent squad left behind by one of the English Premier League’s up and coming managers. And to be fair, he currently fits into that category comfortably himself.
Birmingham City released a club statement this morning which read:(more…)
Will he still be smiling this time next year?My esteemed colleague, Jimbob, has already taken a look back at the season past, you have already voted Fabricio Coloccini as our “Player of the Season,” but now it is time to look forward to next season.
Being the hopelessly deluded, stereotypical Geordies that we are, Alan Pardew seems to think that our expectations will go into overload now that we have finished fifth, and that he needs to embark on a mission to “educate” us to lower our expectations now that a new European front has opened in Newcastle United’s war for supremacy.
Well let’s find out how deluded we really are!
Undoubtedly, we had a very good season. However, though we did well, perhaps our expectations have been just a little on the low side if anything. Our fifth placed finish wasn’t, perhaps, quite the miracle some have thought bearing in mind what Pardew had at his disposal. Bearing in mind previous catastrophes under the current regime though, it has been understandable that expectations have been lowered somewhat by experiences in recent years. (more…)
"No regrets"The Newcastle Journal have recently published an exclusive interview with Chris Hughton, in which the ex United Manager reflects on his time at the club and gives an insight into what is, I suppose, his side of the story and his feelings – both at the time of his sacking and in the period since.
Chris was relieved of his responsibilities in December 2010, a moved that was greeted with a certain degree of incredulity by the United faithful, as he had actually done a very good job in pulling the team together and winning promotion back to the Premier League at the first attempt.
He was replaced by Alan Pardew, a move which it is fair to say was also greeted with a degree of scepticism by the fans. (more…)
For the sake of poor fans says Llambias.Newcastle United’s Managing Director, Derek Llambias, has been speaking to David Conn for yesterday’s Guardian.
In the interview he spoke on how he has received so much abuse from Geordie ingrates that he doesn’t hear it any more, how Mike Ashley told him that he would have “a horrible job” in May 2008, just before he took over as managing director to oversee Ashley’s Sports Directification of the club, how the club spent all of the £35 million Andy Carroll money (although the club made a mighty profit of £36.731 million on player trading without amortisation in their last set of published accounts). Conn also wrote of many other things Llambias supposedly revealed to him in what is a rather fawning piece overall.
Irritatingly, for much of the “interview,” Conn give his own version of what Llambias told him, rather than just giving the quotes themselves in something which reads like a PR piece, something Llambias usually reserves for his friends at Mirror Group titles such as the Mirror, People, Chronicle and Journal. But I digress. (more…)
Hughton: It woz me!In a brief but revealing interview for the Independent on Saturday, Chris Hughton has decided to put the record on misinformation about his role at Newcastle United.
Speaking on his time at the club, he said (amongst other things) what some knew already, that it was actually he who brought Graham Carr, Hatem Ben Arfa and Cheick Tiote into the club.
Whilst he was managing at the club, the now Birmingham City manager was dogged by rumours in the media that he a mere cipher at the club, that the team was run by a committee of senior players who actually picked the team, and that player aquisitions were out of his control after Hughton brought his old Tottenham collegue, Graham Carr, to the club as Chief Scout. The rumours about the players running team affairs were eventually refuted by Hughton himself, who described it as a “slippery slope,” and also by Kevin Nolan and other senior players. Now, Hughton has finally hit back at other misinformation about the recruitment of key signings, Hatem Ben Arfa and Cheick Tiote, and also the recruitment of the club’s current Chief Scout, Graham Carr. After talking about the days following his sacking by Derek Llambias and Mike Ashley on the grounds they were looking for someone “with more managerial experience,” Hughton had the follwing to say, firstly on whether his sacking was “unjust,”:
“Was it unjust? Yes, and that’s how most people felt at the time.”
