Afternoon Toon Army. Canary in peace. As you can imagine lots of debate around down here as to what has happened at our club in recent days. Lots of indicators that Chris Hughton is now leading the way and fits what our CEO wants in a manger. Good choice? Thoughts?
Good manager, if you get him. Though he is a loyal man and will find it difficult to leave Birmingham, hope you do get him as he will do well and make you a top 10 club.
Thanks guys. Would you have liked to have kept him at Newcastle? If you had a choice of him or Pardew which way would you go?
Excellent choice, he's the guy that set us on the right footing and did the spade work before Pards came in. I don't think you'll ever hear anybody up here say a bad word against him. Good luck with him anyway, I'm sure he'll get you moving in the right direction.
Absolutely loved the man! One of the lads on here sent him a letter thanking him on behalf of the fans (think all our names were on the letter) and he sent him a hand written card saying how much he loved his time here and appreciated the support from the fans - THAT is what kind of man he is! Football wise, he's not afraid of playing ugly if he has to, but similarly, we had some ridiculously good results and performances under him (Villa 6:0, Sunderland 5:1). I would say he likes playing with a big man up front, but to be honest, he hasn't had a vast amount of time or money to build his own squad, so with proper support he could potentially go for a completely different style than the 1s he had a Newcastle and Birmingham. Signings have been good on the whole, everyone he signed (barring Sol Campbell) has done a job for us, some were stop gaps (Fitz Hall, Marlon King, Routledge, Paddy Van Arnold) others have been squad players who stepped up Perch, Williamson etc. finally he's also signed some worldies Tiote and Ben Arfa, but history would suggest they're Carr's signings more so than Hughton or Pardew's. Personally I think he could be a great manager for you...Much like us, you're a 'local' club, without the millions of undecided Londoners who make their way up north with a red shirt in one pocket and a sky blue one in the other...Hughton is loyal and decent, he's honest with the fans and would fit perfectly into a club with local ties and a 'family feel' Good luck to the both of you if this comes off!
Interesting comments lads. Hopefully he will come and do well. Most of us just want to survive again but finishing above Villa has now become another prority which I think you guys will approve of. We have a decent squad and with a little quality hopefully we will do OK. Club wants to raise the ground capacity to 35k but we need to keep up for a couple of seasons. Rumours that Holt is off also due to us not offering him another year on the 2 he has left on his contract. Would be sad to see him go but we move on. No player or manager is bigger than the club. Wonder if Leon Best would come if Hughton came?
Harewood mate but we know who you meant. Hughton is an absolute legend. He's never been sacked from a job for poor performance, so you can easily guess what he'll bring. He's a player's manager and he can create a feel good factor throughout the squad which filters down into the fans and the city. You'll be a priviledged club if you can lure Chris away from Birmingham
pards all the way just because his record is immense. CH though... at the time of his leaving would have been numero uno.
Top bloke and underrated manager. I'm sure Pards would be the first to admit he walked into a situation which was already moving in the right direction. All of the foundations for our recent success was put in place by him. The core values of togetherness and respecting the club is still the driving force of our progress. He had our football progressing towards what it is now too. The decision to get rid was bizarre and was probably more a personal and financial one. Certainly couldn't have been down to performances on the field. You'll do well to get him and he would continue the excellent work by Lambert.
Although NUFC are my number 1 team, I have a soft spot for Colchester United as that is where I was born. When Lambert went swanning off to Norwich from Colchester after the U's hammered them 7-1 I decided that I never wanted to see Norwich do well (my apologies surgeryman, hope you forgive me!) but now he has done to the Canaries what he did to Colchester I too will be hoping Norwich finish higher than Villa! As for Chris Hughton, everyone else has pretty much said it - great guy, brought the team together when we most needed someone to bring a sense of unity to the club, and before Pardew came in and did what he has done, you would have been hard pushed to find a fan that wanted him gone. Got my fingers crossed for the Canaries next season (except for when you play NUFC of course!).
I doubt you'll be able to get him, but if you can then it's 100% a yes from me. I know all about how well Pardew has done and let's hope it's not a flash-in-the-pan - frankly, I would never have sacked Chris Hughton in the first place. He delivered our first bit of silverware since Keegan won the Championship in 1993 - he was never given proper backing by Mike Ashley and sadly we will never know how much he could have achieved with Newcastle United. Good luck getting him, his reputation is growing all the time - I think if Birmingham City hadn't been playing in the Europa League this season, they would have got promoted... they just ran out of steam toward the end of the season. I would love to see Chris Hughton back managing in the Premier League, it's where he deserves to ply his trade.
Another point to add would be that although huge credit goes to Carr for our signings, it was Hughton who brought him to SJP...Granted I'm sure the top brass had a say in it but Hughton will have known him from his time at Spurs! I'm sure I'm not the only Toon fan who'd worry if there was another Carr out there ready to bring top players to a rival club!
Much over looked point. It tells you we were heading this way football wise anyway because our signings dictated we were. We would have been signing many of the same players under Hughton, bar maybe Obertan who came as a result of Pardews relationship with SAF. The one criticism that was often levelled at Hughton is the style of football. But you must have the right players to play that way and he would of in time. I'd have little worry on that front given his footballing background, we'd soon have been moving to a more fluid style. But like Pards he'd have retained the core values. We've basically been pretty lucky to get 2 good managers in a row. How many times can we say this has happened in our history!!
