quayside

Much as I love CH I don't think he's going to pull a job as a Premiership manager.

He'll turn up somewhere like that, any place where the owners are desperate to stay up and don't care what the football looks like. Wolves or Wigan might be other possibles. The fat bastard will have banked another sizeable payoff - no justice.

One of ours will do a number on him, get red carded and be out for 3 matches....

He got fined £2,000 for baring his arse at Goodison a few years back and no ban. Was this any worse than that?

Is Ferguson a winger or a full back? I know he played left back in the cup game v Chelsea but I'm not sure if thats his normal position.

Demo outside main entrance was a lot bigger than a few dozen kids at half four. Did anyone listen to Roeder on 5 Live this morning. Very impressed, not a bad word to say about the club or the fans. Clearly still bleeds black and white despite all the mental scarring he went through when he was manager. Almost as impressive as Barton's post-match interview. Whatever else you can say about him, he does understand this club and what it's about. Hope he can continue to channel all that positively. Fair do's I wasn't counting but looked like a few dozen to me and mostly kids, although there were a few standing round gawping and taking photos etc. They do benefit from great accoustics in that tunnel mind. Didn't hear Roeder's interview but you're spot on - he was an absolute top guy - he loved every minute he spent on Tyneside and was a real adopted Geordie, a very humble guy too - not unlike CH. Agree about Barton - he has to be one of the most intelligent and eloquent pros in the game, which just makes some of his outrageous past behaviour seem even wierder. You were very well informed regarding the last weeks occurences and in the absence of much info trickling down from the politburo I'd be interested to know if there is much truth in something I heard in town last night. Someone reliable told me that a squad member had told Hughton he was refusing to travel to an away game if he wasn't in the team and CH gave him his own way. Sensing indiscipline problems on top of a few poor performances, Ashley decided to act quick and that was the end for Hughton. Source told me he admires Ashley for making unpopular decisions when he feels he needs to, rather than letting something drag on and going badly wrong - just like he's done in his businesses. Interesting - got to say that Ashley's track record with us doesn't lend much credence to the idea that he has his finger on the pulse or any f*cking clue what he's doing tbh, but there is clearly stuff that goes on we never get to know about.

Fair enough. I think my general point is valid though - that the decision took some courage and that they haven't hidden themselves away from the reaction. It's an unusual type of decision in that normally owners only make a change when things start to go wrong. They very rarely back themselves to bring in someone new pro-actively. So many of Ashley's decisions have been reactive to events around him. Even bringing in Keegan - which was the only remotely pro-active one - had a whiff of panic about it and pleasing others rather than backing his own beliefs. In the current wave of criticism, all his decisions tend to be lumped together, but in this one he's really put his neck on the line and stamped his own judgement on the situation. It's a gamble, but I suspect that, in his thinking, putting Hughton in charge long-term was also a gamble. He now feels that, if he's going to lose, it'd be better to lose having backed himself rather than going with the flow. The only problem I have with that assessment is the choice of Hughton's replacement. What on earth does Pardew have going by his past experiences -- especially in the transfer market -- that Hughton didn't, or couldn't have achieved himself? It's about faith, and they seemed to either, a) have none in Hughton, for whatever reason, or b) there were other reasons which we'll probably never know regarding his sacking. I'm just trying to see the logic in Pardew's appointment, as if Ashley really wanted a proven, experienced, even world-class manager, he could've appointed one. Giving Pardew a five and a half year deal is a little presumptuous, and requires a lot more faith than the amount the players and fans already had in Hughton. Your questions about Pardew getting the job instead of Hughton echo the thoughts of many of us. But can you name the world class manager we could have appointed? Not sure any of these can be classed as world class but anyway O'Neill is clever and would need to spend so forget him, Jol was never in it as he was never going to shaft his old mate Hughton - so who then? I really wouldn't read too much into the 5 year contract thing, Ashley's lawyers will have ensured any payoff won't be too punishing.

Not according to Joey Barton. I may have got it wrong but I didn't think Barton was saying there wasn't any reasoning offered just that the reasoning that was offered might be bollox.

That's a great post and I take on board the Ashley as an outsider/maverick concept however I'm not convinced there is that much going on inside his head. I see a man who has a blueprint for running a business and a contempt for any other vision or model. He clearly wants people around him who he feels comfortable with and will create havoc if necessary in order to achieve that. Pardew is in fact the first manager Ashley has chosen purely out of of choice. He inherited Allardyce, Keegan was because Redknapp wouldn't, f*ck knows where Kinnear was on the wish list but it certainly wasn't top, Shearer was because Kinnear fell over and Hughton was the assistant who filled in the gaps until he was the only one left standing. Pardew has been selected but he is pretty much part of the football establishment and I think the appointment is down to 2 things - he feels comfortable with Pardew and he believes his investment is in better hands with him as manager. Whether he's screwed up again remains to be seen but his track record of decision making in this industry is pretty shyte tbh.

Yeah, good point. It's the sort of background that often makes for a good manager. But whatever your ability, you need the right opportunity. Everything is stacked against him. It looks to me like Ashley was only prepared to offer Hughton an extension of the short-term contract that he'd been under in the Championship. He felt he was still under trial. Hughton felt he deserved more, with justification. When Calderwood left and the issue of his successor arose, it brought to a head the issue of whether Ashley saw Hughton as the man for the long-term. It always brings me back to the issue of whether the owner of a football club can act with quite the sort of arbitrary authority of an owner of a retail chain. There's such a strong political element to a football club, which I don't think Ashley has come to terms with yet. Yeah I've made the same point on here before. It's the root of the whole Ashley problem and he just doesn't get it. Make a fortune in retailing, think you are a genius and apply the same principles to another business. It is going to be a disaster 9 times out of 10. Ashley has built a huge retailing empire out of virtually nothing so he really isn't stupid. But only the sharpest businessmen work out that you need to adapt your strategy from industry to industry - and Ashley isn't intellectually up to doing that.

I don't think he can have been too surprised - the issue over the replacement for Calderwood, the prevarication over his contract, the press asking him about the rumours about his job, Ashley and Llambias previous track record etc. And yes they are total c*nts.

I think you will find Gold and Sullivan won't be looking to replace Parker with someone on the same sort of wages, they are on the same trip as Ashley.

Barton is a very good player but he is high maintenance. If his heart is in it and he feels needed he is a serious asset, and that was the case under Hughton where he has become an indispensible part of our midfield. But if he doesn't fancy the new managemement or vice versa he'll be a complete pain in the ar5e. Could we even find a buyer that would pick up his wages? Unlikely imo - and what we would do to replace a player of that quality is another story. Unless the club can pull of a serious scouting coup and land the creative equivalent of Tiote for about £3m Pardew needs to make friends with Barton and also to tell Ashley and Llambias to live with the cost of keeping him on the books.

That OP is comedy gold

The shocking treatment of Hughton will never be forgotten. And the decision by Ashley to appoint a new manager at this stage was a gamble that is typical of the man. But I thought we were heading for no better than 15th and that was assuming no injury/suspension/imprisonment epidemics. Our last 2 away games (especially WBA) showed the depths we could reach when the tide turned. As far as I'm concerned staying up was always the aim this season and it still is.

Hey come on, look at the squad Souness inherited.

what good would that do ? just to be replaced by another ashley flunky and don't think it'll make ashley sell up. only being hit massivly in the pocket will do that and god knows where that'll leave the club. The truth - and f*cked is the likely answer to your last question.

Yup that seems about right - a lot of West Ham fans reckon Pardew was a good manager. Good with the media and sets up sides for decent attacking football seem to be popular compliments. But is he better than Hughton? The real issue here is that a lot of us think Hughton did a very good job in difficult circumstances. And if you are going to rip the club apart why do it unless you are putting in something or someone who is obviously better?

So it sounds like Pardew has read this thread and shat himself. Uncle Fester is the man.

The second sentence wasnt overly serious but the first one was.

I'm really not sure about that Sky tv stuff being a reason for getting rid of Hughton. It came from Simon Bird and he's a c*nt.

I know for a fact that Hughton had no idea at 1PM yesterday. He must have sensed he was under threat though, the issue of replacing Calderwood and the prevarication over his contract were not promising signs.

This is probably the crux of the issue here (for me), the decision to remove Hughton was made by the 'board' (Cockney Mafia) and as far as anyone on here knows (GolfMag included ) was not done by Alan Pardew. I understand and empathise with people being upset about Hughton being canned, but the people behind that decision are not called Alan Pardew. Pardew, if he does end up being appointed, looks increasingly likely to be carrying the anger of Ashley's/Llambias' decision-making. I don't necessarily rate him (for the record, I don't really have a view one way or the other, he's a bit of an unknown), I just think he's coming in for a lot of unfair abuse in this thread. Is this WUM-tastic enough Davros? I think most of the anger will be directed at Ashley tbh. We all knew Hughton wasn't a world class manager but we liked him and trusted him to do the best he could in a difficult situation - and so did the players. He'd got stuck in when the club most needed it and he earned a lot of credit for that. For West Ham fans Pardew divides opinion sharply. Some speak highly of him and they liked the football the club played under him, others can't stand him. The majority view amongst our fan base is that Pardew is at best an underwhelming appointment and it seems beyond any sort of logic that its worth driving a lorry through the club's stability to replace Hughton with him. Pardew will need to get some results but if he delivers there won't be too much venom going his way imo. However the mistrust in Ashley and lack of faith in his decision making has probably just doubled, if that were possible.

Hughton's pay off was peanuts and wouldn't even register in any thoughts of selling the club.

Glenn Hoddle's odds have fallen quite a bit today