As the (Delia) Smith's might have sung! We’ve got ourselves in a silly mess and this could easily have been avoided. Its a dark day for any football club who feel they need resort to this type of measure, whether proven correct in the end or not. Is it madness to sack a manager who has consistently kept the side out of the relegation zone and guided Norwich City to victories over two of our final four opponents during his tenure, and then compound it by replacing him with a man who has absolutely no managerial experience other than at youth level? I’m afraid it looks suicidal to me and many, many others. Relying on a ‘dead-cat bounce’ is NOT my idea of shrewd decision making. I’ve got nothing against Neil Adams - lovely guy, met him many times and he knows his football - but he is not a manager. It’s certainly a bold decision. If we were going to make a final roll of the dice I’d have been more persuaded by appointing an old head; a Warnock, a Hoddle, even a Venables; not a novice just to appease some of the fans - but I fully appreciate that they would have wanted assurances about having a future at the club - one we would be unable to give them. Given the circumstances they had little-to-no choice which arguably makes the timing even more strange. Of course, there’s more to it than the (naive, or more likely ignorant) media are suggesting. Anyone who has read my thoughts will know I’ve been fully behind Hughton (in my opinion, being behind a manager of your club should be a given anyway but...), which has been tough because he hasn’t always done himself many favours. I like stability, I like loyalty and I like a ‘club builder’ - all of which Hughton was appointed to be and do, and although he had done things that infuriated me he’d also done things which pleased me and keeping us out of the drop zone is, to me, the crucial thing for my club and will be for the foreseeable future. He was a mixed bag. His record at Norwich City will appear to many of our fans ‘abysmal’ but lets put things in context - he has only managed us in a very difficult Premier League. Of course his win ratio is going to be low. Even some of the best managers at the smaller clubs have very low win percentages. He’s a good coach and I believe he will walk straight into another job in no time at all because he is talented and respected within his profession. It hasn’t worked out here for whatever reason but in my opinion, he has never been fully accepted by a large proportion of our support and was always going to end up portrayed as a failure, even though the truth is he kept us in the Premier League, led us to memorable victories over the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal and Manchester City and earned the club millions of pounds in the process. ‘Disaster’ he was not. Of course there have been many lows - far, far too many if truth be told, especially this term. The most humiliating being at The Etihad and against Luton in the cup. In my opinion the biggest downfall of his career here has been the lack of connection with fans who often saw him as boring and negative. But it is wrong to say he has been a failure. Neither has he been a rip-roaring success. He’s made mistakes and struggled throughout his tenure to find a formula that would allow us to create and score more goals - my biggest gripe. He simply hasn’t been innovative enough and I hope our next manager is. For me, the time for change would have been after the Fulham cup tie. I said at the time it felt like the point where Hughton lost the fans to a point where it could never be retrieved, the point where it became clear he would definitely not be in charge next season, no matter which league we ended up in. I was pleased at the time that he was backed and continued to be backed because it was refreshing to see - and to be fair his home record (despite Saturday) was pretty good. But we haven’t been good enough away and improvement looked a distant dream despite great opportunities at Cardiff, West Ham and Aston Villa where we really should have taken nine points. I have no evidence for this but I believe that we’d been touting around for a new guy since around the time of the Fulham cup game and I wouldn’t be surprised as I suggested on here at the time that we’ve had word from Neil Lennon (who coincidentally appeared on MotD2 last night - strange how these things happen!) that he will take the job. I also suspect it will be dependent on us keeping our Premier League status, thus the panic in the boardroom following Saturday’s inept display. I was always very confident of survival this season but the West Brom defeat was a huge loss that really does put that survival in serious jeopardy. I think if we go down then we have the safety net of Malky Mackay lurking in the background. All conjecture of course but perfectly logical. We won’t struggle to get a new manager who has had a modicum of success anyway, especially with Premier League funds (or parachute payments if relegated), a debt-free club and a board who have shown lots of patience despite events last night. Chris Hughton can leave with his dignity and reputation in tact. He guided us to safety last season under difficult circumstances and was on course (no matter how anyone tries to spin it - we are still five points above the relegation zone at the time he leaves) to do so again. The major gripe against Hughton has been his style of football and its a gripe which I can fully appreciate must grind on some fans enormously, though often this was used as an excuse to bash, even when not relevant to the game being discussed. And I wouldn’t expect a sudden revolution on that front any time soon either. Anybody now throwing insults at the man are certainly no friend of mine if you do that - he should be thanked for what he did last season and for giving us more than a fighting chance this season, and then we all move on. Insults only go to prove how appalling the behaviour of some fans has been and he doesn’t deserve that and our fans should be above that type of mentality - this mentality of abuse has been the most disappointing aspect of Hughton’s whole reign and has embarrassed me more than any of the football I have witnessed. The depressing bile spouted about interviews and substitutions is just as bad. It would have been a risk to have kept him in charge. I fear its a bigger risk to have appointed Adams, especially at this stage of a season. Has a caretaker manager ever kept a team up in the top flight? Hopefully someone can prove me wrong on that. But as I’ve been saying it all season like a broken record, it is now essential that everyone pulls together behind the caretaker and the players because it is a fact that we have NOT done that this season - I include myself in that. I’ve not sung my heart out like I usually do. It’s been an unpleasant place to watch football. It’s hurt me to see fellow fans seemingly wanting a guy to fail to the detriment of our own club. And I’m afraid anyone who denies this has happened is glossing over the truth - I’ve seen and heard it with my own eyes and ears for months. We fans have not been good enough and neither have the players, nor the outgoing manager - it is a collective responsibility. We have to galvanise ourselves. I really, truly, desperately hope this gamble pays off for the club but in my opinion we’ve taken ourselves out of a pen where hundreds of monkeys are throwing **** at us and jumped into a pit where one lion is waiting for their supper. I’ll let you decide which scenario you’d prefer. Only time will tell as to whether we’ve been clever enough to take a tranquilizer gun with us... OTBC. Apologies for the essay.
I've thought since about December when Lennon was first linked and he did not deny it that it was highly likely. It all adds up, though I assume it will only be if we stay up.
Fans forced their hand in many ways with their behaviour. If they wanted rid it should of been earlier or the end of the season. Hopefully we will just scrape through.
Oh great, CH managed to keep NCFC out of the relegation zone!! As fans we might have expected our team not to be in the relegation zone after finishing 11th last season and spending a reported £25m on players. So who's fault was it that RvW was brought to this club? Who's fault was it that Hooper was not getting the service his proven talent deserves? Who's fault was it that the Swedish carthorse was bought to NCF? Why does Bassong seem to hold this club in ridicule? Could it be that he holds CH in contempt? To me, after endless post match diatribes as to why we didn't play like we should/could, CH was clearly unable to change the we play despite tinkering on the fringes. This is the time when players in the squad who genuinely care about putting in a good performance come to the fore and instill a sense of pride. Neil Adams may lack the experience, but he sure is hell going to bring a bit of passion to the team. Hopefully we see young Josh Murphy given another chance to show us his talent.
The thing is it is actually impossible to know whether it was the right thing to do. Stay up /go down, it's down to CH.
if you think CH lacked passion then oh what's the fecking point? He's gone and the club will continue to try and develop, end of story
This decision is late in the day but the right one. I think the squad is lacking confidence, the away game losses were taking their toll, hopefully this change will give the players the confidence boost they need to play to the best of their ability.
Bizzare decision now, I have to say. I felt before hand, no matter how bad we were vs West Brom or the nature of the 5 games left that Hughton WOULD have kept us up. Under Neil Adams that feels far less likely to me. After Saturday I was pretty certain that Hughton was never going to be able to win back the fans he has lost so therefore he would go at the end of the season but with 5 games left we now have a guy with no experience of managing a team anywhere near this level against 5 experienced managers. Of course Hughton's selections were usually quite predictable. At least now Fullham won't have a clue what to expect, so maybe this is all just an all or nothing ploy to try to beat Fullham. I really, really, really hope I am wrong but I fear for us now.
So you think that CH would have turned around our away performance for the Fulham game?, I just can't see it myself.
the buck stops at the board im afraid! They didnt have the courage to stick to their convictions, the decision was made long ago and they have shown terrible weakness at such a critical time. Us fans have played the final hand in this season long saga and we should all take some of the responsibility if we go down.
I agree, he should have been left until the seasons end. Also, he should have been sacked in the Summer. Out of all the times to do it, they have picked the worst.
the more i think about it, the more i think rob is right and this has been brought about by players concerns - some are approaching breaking point. not necessarily because of hughton (though it will have played a part for some) but because of the fans confronting them during and after games. we couldn't go on with an atmosphere like that. players thinking that any mistake will end with them either being booed or worse - it was seriously unpleasant and i think the board will have felt under pressure to bring this to an end immediately because we cannot afford to have fans fighting with players and vice versa. it was awful. this move has been made to appease the fans rather than the players though. if it kicks the players up the backside too then great. fans have played a big part in this and whether you wanted hughton to leave or not, some of the stuff that has gone on has been inexcusable. there's no doubt in my mind that the board felt comfortable and confident that hughton would keep us up, albeit it would be close. he would then have left his position during the coming summer but with the fans refusing to get behind the team it was making it even harder for us. that excuse is not there now. now its down to the players. no excuses for them now because i'm positive the fans will get behind them now.
quick point about the board - i don't think we can be overly critical of the board for two very good reasons: 1) gave decent financial backing to the manager 2) were very patient through winless runs timing, yes, appalling. but lets not throw the baby out with the bath water. we still have a very good board at this club. they can't get everything right. its important that they get as much right as they can and i think they have.
True Supers - the atmosphere on saturday was venomous - practically from the start. Booing, swearing, people jumping out of their seats and shaking their fists at players, chanting "you're not fit to wear the shirt" and then the throwing of the clapperboards at the end at players and Hughton was very unpleasant and wouldn't have gone unnoticed in the Directors box. As bad as we were on Saturday, and boy were we bad (I had my head in my hands more times than in any other game I have been to but I did not boo, jeer or remonstrate) the reaction of many fans would have hastened the decision to let Hughton go.
If I'm brutally honest, I don't think Saturdays performance was anywhere near as bad as some of the others. It was the substitutions that infuriated me.
people near me were booing hoolahan's name when it was announced he was starting. probably the same people who were moaning a few weeks ago that he wasn't playing. ****ing ridiculous. some of our fans are muppets of the very highest order and probably deserve to be relegated. thankfully we've got more good 'uns than bad 'uns in my experience
