Why do so many seem so discontent At how this year so far´s panned out, The bottom half existence that we have spent Was surely never much in doubt I remember doing a pre-season poll To predict where we´d end the show, And 55 % then thought that our goal Would be eleventh spot or below Ten percent actually thought fourteenth place Would be the best we would achieve, And just keep ourselves clear of the trapdoor race To earn yet one more year´s reprieve So surely the fifteenth where we are right now Is staying pretty much to form, Especially as it is so tight, as we know With many still close to the storm Football scribes and gurus throughout the land Have nothing but good things to say, About Hughton the coach, and his magic wand And how he can get teams to play Players too, back him right up to the hilt With very few mutinous signs, Giving their all until they drop and wilt With clearly no conflict of minds All could be rosy, and yet it is not Amongst a vast portion of fans, Who, looking for redeeming features, can spot None at all in this decent man So why, I keep asking myself every week Is so much of what Hughton does, Ridiculed by those whose support he seeks And who could give the players a buzz His style contra Lambert has been mentioned oft As has his quite cautious approach, Yet Villa are but two points better off And that´s with a ´world-class´ coach Is it just because those full of Norfolk fare When, if the times should become lean, Find it hard to accept the cupboard is bare And things not as good as they´ve been Expectancy has naturally played a part And some may well have felt let down, But levels for some have been well off the chart Unrealistically high as they´ve found Mistakes by some individuals too Have cost us dearly every time, Some teams can make them, so nobody knew But ours have been verily landmines And injuries, yes, it´s all part of the game But they´ve followed us all the way, Dogging our footsteps and keeping us lame To spoil any flow in our play I know we have debated this all before So in´ers or out´ers be kind, But here I am, still struggling to fÃnd the core Of why Hughton´s still so maligned. OTBC
Well I'm pretty sure the answers will be that we're boring to watch, we spent loads of money, our strikers can't score, CH is too nice about the opposition, CH's subs are rubbish, we capitulate in many matches, CH has had 2 years we should be top 10, Bassong is rubbish, we don't have enough midgets who pass the ball, our team is too tall, we don't have GH. I'm sure I have missed some...oh and no one wanted CH to start with. I can perfectly understand some discontent, but like you I think people have to be much more realistic.
Because he does not have what it takes to be a PL manager. He time in charge has clearly shown that. Why would anyone need anymore evidence????? Now let's just ride out the rest of the season and then give him his cards. If the footballing gods are kind we will still be in the PL.
You know I'm in the same court as you RBF, I just wonder if those that can't see what we see are perhaps lacking in intelligence, they certainly have ridiculously high expectations!
You looking for trouble Dave? Calling the discontent on here thick. Though I have often wondered about a few.
The season long debate is alive and well. I fear ne'er the two camps will agree. CH may be too nice (not the worst virtue though surely!) but he commands a hell of a lot more respect than most of the Muppets in charge of other PL clubs and certainly some of the favoured replacements often touted on this board. Based on what we can reasonably afford and without rose tinted specs on we are not far off where we should be in the league based on most factors. IMO.
To bite or not to bite, that is the question? Go on then, how ludicrously arrogant of you to presume that any one not sharing your opinion is perhaps lacking intelligence! The rest has been said before, I neither have outragious expectations or any real will to go over it all again. BTW RBF, a very eloquent way to dress up a load of old horse excrement! Bah!
I would never go so far as to label people in that way Dave, and I rather doubt it´s got much to do with intelligence anyway. I can totally understand that those who had high expectations of this season would feel disappointed with some performances and the position we´re sitting in now, but what I´ve never been able to understand, and still cannot, is why they lay the blame for that disappointment solely at Chris Hughton´s door, it really is very seldom as cut and dried as that. So many other factors have played their part this season, that to pick on him, because it´s the easiest thing to do, is just as unfair, as to say that the cause of our problems are the players, who aren´t good enough, and who make too many mistakes. Hughton is partly responsible, his coaching staff are partly responsible, the players are partly responsible, circumstances are partly responsible, and so on and so on. and THURNBY and Melchy this wasn´t an attempt to try and rehash the whole ´for´ or ´against´ debate, just airing a few thoughts that´s all, in the only way I know how.
Sorry RBF and all the doubters, I just get so frustrated with people who think they know what's going on in training and team picking which they obviously do not! Simple question. When has CH had a full quota of match-fit players to pick from?
I don't lay it all at Hootuns door, for example Bassong has made a number of high profile errors recently (Mainly high profile because they're seemingly always punished by goals), These Hootun can do little about, may be better allround play and a more prolific team might take the spotlight away from the errors but the players are also playing beneath what I think they're capable of, may be thats optomistic or unrealistic? But some players have certaintly in my eyes and in statistics played better previously. As Hootuns persuit of Torvilanddean illustraited he was after some more invention, may be its the boards fault a little too for not bringing in a vital part of the jigsaw? If the atmosphere on saturday was anything to go by we fans could be at fault a little too, it wasn't exactly an uplifting effort for the players (This one is a little chicken and egg for me with the support becoming increasingly muted as CHball has dulled our optimism and enthusiasum for each match) May be its just bad luck? Afterall if Davina McCall was in charge of the team and had made 70 odd substitutions by dumb luck alone one would surely score? or at the very least get an assist? Bottom line for me is whilst its not exclusively Hootuns fault that we can't score, are once again on a horrendous run of form and that apart from 2 brief spells this season the football has been dire to watch. He is the most culpable in the list of problems. For the record once again staying up is good and a great achievement for a club such as ours, but staying up at all costs i.e. CHball is not worth it! Not to mention this bizarely held belief from the happy clappers that it can only get worse with a change surely shows a lack of the old grey matter! Bah!
ah, expectations... great expectations. people don’t like it when you question theirs being ‘too demanding’ or ‘too high’ but frankly, that has been a major issue this season, probably because of the money spent and the fact us City fans aren’t used to that kind of wonga being thrown about. if, like me, you felt that money was spent in order to ‘keep up with the jones’es’ and we’d be in a relegation scrap before a ball was even kicked then, like me, you will be reasonably content with the fact we sit 4 points clear of the drop zone at this stage, especially given the problems we’ve had to encounter this term, on and off the pitch. i predicted we’d finish between 4 and 8 points above the bottom 3 come the end of the season but this is a weird division this year and it’ll likely be much tighter than that for a number of clubs, including ourselves. i believe our style of football has improved from last season although its not always been an easy ride but i have two major gripes this season, both of which have been hugely affected by numerous injuries to key personnel - one of our worst runs of injuries i can remember to be honest - there is little doubt we’ve been unlucky on that front. 1) is with the amount of goals scored. it simply hasn’t been good enough. we’ve struggled to create chances this season and although we’ve created more as the season has worn on it is still our achilles heel and has been since hughton took the reigns. 2) confidence throughout the entire squad been visibly low for a long period of time now and while i appreciate its bloody difficult to dig yourselves out of a confidence-led rut it is vital that the players confidence is rebulit and yet it is still so fragile, as perfectly illustrated at villa park a fortnight ago. we didn’t lose that game because we are a poor side - we lost it because heads went down. that is down to the manager and coaching staff to sort out and they’ve been unable to do it for any sort of sustained period thus far. it is THAT lack of confidence (along with losing a relatively large section of the fan base over the last 12 months) which will eventually cost him his job because as it stands it won’t be down to results. he did a good job last season to steady a shaky ship and keep us up with something to spare. this season we've struggled along under awkward circumstances injury-and-confidence-wise, seemingly from one crisis to another, yet we do continue (as it stands) to pick up enough points regularly, especially at home, to be good enough to stay up once again. i very much doubt chris hughton will be norwich city manager come the opening game of the 20014-15 season. so in the meantime everyone needs to knuckle down (players, manager and fans) and get us over the line so that we can add some more quality to the side during the summer. OTBC
This is true but based on our position in the table that says enough to me, the goal difference tells a much bigger and worrying story.
Hi Superman bor, I totally agree with your assessment of our current situation. In a nutshell if I had to compare Hughton against Lambert I would settle for Lambert every time. Hughton has without doubt a nice personality whereas Lambert's ethics leaves much to be desired but this is football and nice managers don't achieve success on the football pitch. It is a dog eat dog business and the vicious dog wins. Like you, I cannot see Hughton being in charge next season. He has failed to command the respect of the fans in his handling of the club. I find nothing wrong with his negative approach to games as that complies with the directive the board gave him: maintain our PL status. We have spent a whole season with an obvious goal scoring problem and nothing has been done to rectify that problem. There is nothing hard about putting the ball in the net, our opponents certainly have the knack of putting the ball into ours !!! Blame is too easily attached to individuals. It certainly doesn't help our situation by having fans booing the team just because results have not come up to their expectations. This is the PL and all teams in this league are not novices, as borne out by the teams fighting to avoid relegation. Hopefully we will survive to fight another day but the fans must play their part and hide their disappointment when results go wrong and encourage the team to overcome adversity, they are as much a part of the team as the players.
I very much doubt that too Supers! Though if he were to get that long, might we final see city score more than one goal again? May be even a brace from RvW? or miracle of miracles Becchio play ten games scoring hatricks in each! Bah!
Sorry after Stoke and Villa should that just be clappers? Agree that it would at this stage be in all likelyhood unwise to change things, but then people have been saying that since January and with hindsight in my opinion it is unlikely that we would be in a worse position had we of changed then, now or any time inbetween. I can honestly see us finishing with 33-34 points now and still maybe staying up! But even now whilst not sensible I could see some left field appointment temporarily in til the end of the season doing better. Even if it is to give a shortlived bounce in confidence. It'll not happen, but it feels like we are 999 cuts in to Hughtons reign and the last one is going to be the longest slowest and most painful of them all! Bah!
"I can honestly see us finishing with 33-34 points now and still maybe staying up!" I also don't see us getting any more than 33/34 points and staying up by the skin of our teeth. Checking on the remaining fixtures I would expect Palace. Cardiff and Stoke to reach a maximum of 29 points ensuring our safety. However it would only take a surprise result by one of these three and another one of our dire performances and we could be in trouble.