Well firstly, as the title of this article goes, this is my own personal thank-you, and judging by the Talk Of The Tyne forum, I’m not the only one fan grateful for what he has done for the club.
Hughton is a sincere person, he is visibly hurt when results don’t go his way, and again, visibly elated when results are going the right way, but his personality was one of a seemingly shy person, certainly not vocal and some will say ludicrous like Kinnear, nor bullish in his achievements, unlike Fat Sam, he could manage Barcelona don’t you know…
Hughton has won us over, and if you don’t agree with me that’s fine, but he surpassed anything I ever thought he would by taking us back to the top flight. His balanced post match comments may do nothing to inspire anyone but, surely it was better than the rubbish that some have spouted in the past?
The future however, for Hughton was always uncertain, you can’t help feeling that his stint in the top flight was a stop gap for us, a kind of test but a test that would always end in him leaving the club, he has done well but we’ve been erratic and his ability to bring in players will be, and has been questioned, his motivational skills though, seemed to be working, we’ve never witnessed a team spirit for a long time, but we have had one, the players have said as much and the Sunderland game was an example of what can be done.
His failings will be the ability to bring in new players, don’t go blaming his lack of charisma, Alex Ferguson is hardly charismatic, but his ability to attract, pick, and get the best out of players can not be questioned.
The failings I mention are not all down to the man himself, his transfer kitty during the close season was virtually nothing in this day and age, so we can level some or a lot of the blame on the heirachy, and I do, I still blame Ashley for all that is bad about NUFC right now.
So to sum Chris Hughton up, a nice man, balanced, but without the ability to bring in players, partly due to finances, I feel he has been hard done to, but can understand the reasons we are looking to replace him.
As I write this and feel I’m being harsh on Chris, I have to check myself, because I honestly thank the man, he brought some balance to the team, his manner kept the press from the door and we settled into a normal way of footballing life to a certain extent.
Lurking in the background however, Mike Ashley and co are like the kids at school who plan to beat you up as soon as the school bell goes, they don’t tell you, you might have a suspicion, but you never really know what’s round the corner or when it’s going to happen, for this reason, I still do not back Mike Ashley, time will tell if this decision is good for the club or not, for his sake I hope it is.
I feel that Hughton was always going to go, the poor run of results is not so much the reason, as the trigger point to minimise the public discontent, some saying, ‘results arent good enough, he had to go’ I’m not one of them, we sit is a decent position in the league, and that is down to Hughton.
Moving forward I see the need for a manager that has pull, but, I can’t thank Chris enough for what he has done, and Ashley, well the words disgraceful keep entering my head whenever I see or hear his name.
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