Hughton bringing the Premiership back to Newcastle.Venue: St James’ Park, Newcastle. Date: Sun, 23rd Sept. Kick off: 3:00pm Referee: Neil Swarbrick. UK TV: None.
Chris Hughton will make his first public appearance at St James’ Park since he managed a 1-1 draw for the Toon against Chelsea in November 2010.
We all know that shortly after that game, with the team standing in 11th place in the Premier League (after our one year sabbatical in the Championship) Messrs Ashley and Llambias showed Hughton the door to bring in a manager with much “greater experience” (i.e. their own man). Pardew, an unpopular choice as Hughton’s replacement, tried to make the most of his opportunity and said this week:
“Both of us could probably look each other in the eye and say we have done a decent job at Newcastle”. Maybe but…
Now is not the time to drag out the old “should he / shouldnt he” routine but lets hope that Chris, who led us back into the top flight at the first time of asking (accumulating 102 points along the way), as well as bringing Graham Carr to the club, is afforded the same reception as former manager Kevin Keegan experienced on his return with Manchester City all those years ago. (more…)
Hughton: Still searching for his perfect partner. It is now well over a month since former Newcastle United assistant manager, Colin Calderwood said goodbye to Tyneside and took up the manager’s position at Hibernian in Edinburgh. Meanwhile, the Magpies are still missing an assistant manager and surviving with one of the smallest first team coaching staffs in the Premiership.
Speaking in an interview, manager, Chris Hughton said of the quest:
“It’s been coming up to five weeks now but no, there has been no new progress in that this week,”
Meanwhile, it is also known that as things stand, Hughton himself is only on a contract until the end of the season with new contract discussions happening in January. Looking at it from a potential candidate’s point of view, this may not inspire the greatest feeling of job security should Hughton’s next contract talks fail, and there would be a good chance that any credible candidate for the job would bear this in mind if approached about the position. (more…)
The dynamic duo is no more.It’s been around about a month since Colin Calderwood left his post as assistant manager at Newcastle to become the new manager of Hbernian.
Fair play, wish him all the best and all that malarkey, but his departure has left a rather sizeable hole in what was already a limited backroom staff setup.
As it stands we have only Chris Hughton and Paul Barron who are dedicated to working with the first-team, and the latter one of those is actually supposed to be a goalkeeping coach. Then we have Steve Stone and Peter Beardsley in the background floating around with the reserves and youth setup, which is all very good, but even if they pitched in and helped with the first-team it would still leave us stretched.
What Chris Hughton is missing, more than anything at the moment, is an assistant that he can rely on, and that man has to be someone of his choosing as he needs to be able to trust him and work with him. Perhaps something can be sorted in that department this week? (more…)
Hughton ponders his next move.The search rolls on for Chris Hughton as he looks to hire an assistant to fill the roll that Colin Calderwood left.
Brian Kerr was a name that had been thrown around, but both Hughton and Kerr, who is currently managing the Faroe Islands, have ruled out that rumour. Another name that was being mentioned was Kevin Sheedy, but Hughton has said today that there is no basis in that rumour either.
Hughton missed out on his first-choice when Steve Clarke turned the opportunity to return to Tyneside, and it seems that the process of finding a replacement for Calderwood is taking longer than anticipated. It’s a situation that needs to be resolved soon though as Hughton can’t keep doing everything on his own.
“There’s no truth to the speculation that Brian Kerr will be coming to the club as my assistant,” replied Hughton when asked by The Chronicle about the rumours of Brian Kerr being appointed as his sidekick. (more…)
Oliver: Risible buffoon.Writing for the People newspaper yeterday, Alan Oliver, who is renowned throughout the region for his completely innaccurate and malicious reporting about Newcastle United, and still banned from St James’s Park for spreading falsehoods about the club, was still persisting with the story that Chris Hughton is about to be sacked.
Despite Newcastle’s victory at West Ham which left them in the top half of the table, Oliver insists:
“CHRIS HUGHTON is fighting for his job at Newcastle, with Mike Ashley yet to start negotiations on a new contract.
“Toon boss Hughton’s deal runs out at the end of the season but owner Ashley is in no hurry to begin talks after Newcastle took just one point from three Premier League home games – against Blackpool, Stoke and Wigan.
“And despite impressive defeats of Aston Villa and Everton in the league, as well as a stunning win at Chelsea in the Carling Cup, it is the results at St James’ Park against fellow relegation candidates that have set the alarm bells ringing with the top brass.” (more…)
