Hughton: “I’m very much a manager”.I’ve been told by by doctor that I must reduce my stress, so I thought that I’d type up a transcript of former Newcastle United manager, Chris Hughton’s recent long interview to Richard Keys and Andy Gray on ‘Talk Sport’. In it, Chris gives some very interesting insights on what it was like managing the club, the events leading up to his sacking for no discernable reason, gives some insight on his signing of Cheick Tiote for the club, his relationship with assistant, Colin Calderwood, and lots of other stuff.
It was a fairly long (half hour) interview, so I will put the transcript in two parts. In this part, he discusses what it was like managing Newcastle United, the fans, being sacked and how he sees his future as a football manager.
Richard Keys:“What’s it like managing Newcastle United? I think you could tell us a story and a half about that, couldn’t you? It’s a wonderful club to be in charge of, isn’t it?”
Chris Hughton:“It’s a fantastic club and I think when you’ve spent the amount of time in the game that I have and you’ve been up there on numerous occaisions, experienced what it holds up there, the supporters, the stadium, I think you have to be there to really realise what it means to the people up there. They have a support that will tell you it as it is, a magnificent support that will get behind you one hundred percent and push the team on. But they’re also a support that if they don’t like what they see, they can be very vocal and they see it as very much their club. You only have to walk around the City centre and you don’t see any other shirts. If you live in Newcastle, you support Newcastle. You feel that and I felt it one hundred percent.” (more…)
Tiote: Who is telling the truth?I think it would be fair to say that Newcastle midfielder, Cheick Tioté, has been something of a success since he was signed by the club from F.C. Twente on 26 August 2010.
Despite the modest £3.5 milllion payed by The Magpies for the player, he has since drawn comparisons with world class stars such as Chelsea’s Michael Essien and his fellow member of the Ivory Coast national side, Yaya Toure, who he partnered in last Summer’s World Cup. However, there are contradictory stories on how he was brought to the club last year.
Speaking after signing him as a Newcastle United player, then manager, Chris Hughton, said of the circumstamces that led to journey to Tyneside.
Ever the collegiate leader who seeks to deflect acclaim for himself on to the backroom staff, Hughton gives credit to the scouts who spotted Tiote way back when he was a young player at Belgian side, Anderlecht, saying: (more…)
How is he doing?Alan Pardew has now managed Newcastle United for 10 games, but is he doing a good job?
Chris Hughton divided opinion as a manager with some rating him highly, others insisting he was ‘clueless’ and a plethora of opinions in between the two extremes.
His sacking, though, was a shock. It might have a pleasant shock to those who never rated him but it was a shock nonetheless. There were rumblings in the press before it happened, but I think most fans thought he’d at least to get to see out the season. I think most people appreciated that the constant changes of manager were one of the main reasons for our demise and relegation, and were hoping the club would ease up on the revolving door approach.
Hughton says he still doesn’t know why he was sacked. Ashley said he wanted someone “with more experience” and, beyond a lot of speculation and rumour, that’s just about all we actually know about things.
So in comes Alan Pardew. He didn’t really arrive to a fanfare – more of a squeak – and I think most fans were either unhappy about his appointment or, at best, nonplussed.
We’re now 10 games into Pardew’s tenure as manager and he’s clocked up 3 wins, 3 draws and 4 losses, so what do we think about him? (more…)
Hughton accepting the award.Ex Newcastle United manager, Chris Hughton won the “North East Sports Personality of the Year Award” at the BBC North East and Cumbria Regional Sports Awards yesterday evening.
The event, held at The University of Sunderland, saw Chris winning the award despite being sacked as Newcastle manager in December of last year, supposedly for being too inexperienced to manage the club in the Premier League. He was, of course, replaced with current manager, Alan Pardew.
The judges commented that Hughton received the award because they were:
“Impressed with his quiet determination and skilful handling of what was at times a tricky situation.”
Newcastle United also received the “Team of the Year” award for their achievements under Hughton, including being promoted to The Premier League as champions with a massive 102 points.
Speaking at the award, Hughton was asked if he was “a little bit hurt by the way it all ended.”
Tight-lipped or slack-jawed?Some people have suggested that Newcastle fans are never happy at the club’s communication policies, complaining that we didn’t hear enough from the club under Chris Hughton but now complaining that we hear too much from the club under Alan Pardew.
But I think that’s an oversimplification.
Recently we had some snow down here in the South West of England where I live and – coming from the North East myself – I find it astonishing that the merest icing sugar-like coating of snow can bring the South West to a complete halt.
People spend hours looking up at the sky wondering what this white stuff is and, when told it is something called snow, they dash inside to look it up on the Internet.
No traffic moves of course – mainly because people have confused the phrase “can’t get the car out because of the snow” with “can’t be bothered to get out of bed” – which ultimately led to me getting no post for a week just before Christmas.
When Health & Safety had finally decided that there was no longer any danger of him tripping over a snowflake, the postman eventually resumed his rounds and I managed to have a chat with him.
He explained that they had loads of post to catch up on and that we’d be getting two deliveries a day for a while in order to allow them to do that. This was information I wanted. (more…)
