The old Chris Hughton discussion thread

[Wullie]

I'm not Hughton's biggest fan, I don't think he's up to the job should we get promoted but you've got to give him a lot of credit for this season. Don't think you can say "not good enough" when we're 5 points clear with a game in hand.

[Dave]

I'm not Hughton's biggest fan, I don't think he's up to the job should we get promoted but you've got to give him a lot of credit for this season. Don't think you can say "not good enough" when we're 5 points clear with a game in hand.

 

[STM]

Spot on Wullie.

[Cajun]

I'm not Hughton's biggest fan, I don't think he's up to the job should we get promoted but you've got to give him a lot of credit for this season. Don't think you can say "not good enough" when we're 5 points clear with a game in hand.

 

 

Exactly, EVERY single poster on here would have chewed their left arm off at the start of the season to be in this position now. We have looked very uncomfortable in quite a few games but we are getting the points so he Hughton is obviously doing something right.

 

You can call luck maybe a few games into the season but 32 games in? Nope sorry I can't give you that one.

[Mick]

Sorry but I fail to believe you can get lucky enough to be top of the league after 32 games. As I mentioned earlier the Smogs have a "proper" manager and I don't think their squad is much if any worse than ours however we are doing much better than them.

 

Our defence is f***ing outstanding (in this league) but the rest of the squad is pretty poor and Hughton is getting the most out of it.

 

We as fans seem desperate at times not to give any credit, always looking for some excuse (luck, everyone else is s***, we have a couple of special players etc..) why we are doing well rather than accepting the manager might be doing a decent job.

 

Boro were virtually doing as well as we were until they sacked Southgate and they've suffered badly because of that change.  I don't think anybody is suggesting that we should do what they did and sack Hughton during the season.  I've seen plenty of games where we've been lucky but you make your own luck anyway so if we have been lucky then that's down to us.

 

As for Boro having a squad that is not much worse than ours, I would struggle to think of any player who they have that would be better than what we have in the same position.

[Guest icemanblue]

I'm not Hughton's biggest fan, I don't think he's up to the job should we get promoted but you've got to give him a lot of credit for this season. Don't think you can say "not good enough" when we're 5 points clear with a game in hand.

 

Word up.

[Cajun]

Johnson for the first half of the season?

 

Gary O'Neill and Digard are better than anything we have in centre mid. The majority would have swapped Wheater for Taylor at the start of the season and Lita would definitely be fighting for a place here.

 

Pogatetz may have been in with a shout too but I admit that is based on his form a while back as I can't say I have seen him much recently.

 

That is all off the top of my head but at the start of the season the majority thought they would be one of the teams we would be fighting it out with (well those who weren't predicting us to go down again anyway).

 

You make a good point though, we have seen with them lot what replacing your "underperforming" manager with an experienced one can do.

[Mick]

Johnson for the first half of the season?

 

Gary O'Neill and Digard are better than anything we have in centre mid. The majority would have swapped Wheater for Taylor at the start of the season and Lita would definitely be fighting for a place here.

 

Pogatetz may have been in with a shout too but I admit that is based on his form a while back as I can't say I have seen him much recently.

 

That is all off the top of my head but at the start of the season the majority thought they would be one of the teams we would be fighting it out with (well those who weren't predicting us to go down again anyway).

 

You make a good point though, we have seen with them lot what replacing your "underperforming" manager with an experienced one can do.

 

I'd forgotten that O'Neill had moved inside this season so I would go along with that, I thought that Digard wasn't playing for Boro this season.  Lita has scored fewer goals than Carroll, Lovenkrands, Shola and Best while at Coventry.  I wouldn't put him miles behind those but I'm not sure I would put him ahead of them either, again its opinion so neither is right or wrong.

[Cajun]

No mine is definitely right [/NE5]

 

 

 

 

I just think he deserves a bit more credit than he gets sometimes (actually I think it's pretty shocking the abuse he gets). I don't want him to manage us in the Premiership (if we go up) because I don't think he is a manager but this season he deserves a lot of credit, especially as I don't think we would get any better in anyway.

[Heron]

Hughton has done one or two decent things, but on the whole I maintain we are top in spite of him rather than because of him.

 

So he's done a poor job or an average job?

 

Average, but far from good enough.

 

So he hasn't done good enough? Despite exceeding most fans expectations.

 

Or are you merely saying he's far from good enough for the premiership?

 

If the opposition weren't such piss-poor finishers, we wouldn't be where we are - that's his fault.

 

The fact we are top has been down to a little touch of quality from certain players and some luck.

 

I find your comments ludicrous.

[Guest guinness_fiend]

Hughton has done one or two decent things, but on the whole I maintain we are top in spite of him rather than because of him.

 

So he's done a poor job or an average job?

 

Average, but far from good enough.

 

So he hasn't done good enough? Despite exceeding most fans expectations.

 

Or are you merely saying he's far from good enough for the premiership?

 

If the opposition weren't such piss-poor finishers, we wouldn't be where we are - that's his fault.

 

The fact we are top has been down to a little touch of quality from certain players and some luck.

 

I find your comments ludicrous.

 

 

You tell him, Heza!

[Heron]

Hughton has done one or two decent things, but on the whole I maintain we are top in spite of him rather than because of him.

 

So he's done a poor job or an average job?

 

Average, but far from good enough.

 

So he hasn't done good enough? Despite exceeding most fans expectations.

 

Or are you merely saying he's far from good enough for the premiership?

 

If the opposition weren't such piss-poor finishers, we wouldn't be where we are - that's his fault.

 

The fact we are top has been down to a little touch of quality from certain players and some luck.

 

I find your comments ludicrous.

 

 

You tell him, Heza!

 

[Shak]

Hughton deserves credit for this year, it's ludicrous to try and suggest he's not had a massive role in the success we've had this year.

 

Do we have better players than pretty much everyone else in the league? Yes, we do. Have we been lucky at points this year? Yes, but everyone has luck on their side from time to time.

 

Hughton took a rotten dressing room and has them playing together as a team.

 

I think he'll get found out very badly in the Premiership if we go up and he stays in charge, but that doesn't mean I have to pretend he's done a bad job this year.

[Guest sicko2ndbest]

As a person I rate him highly, as a championship manager with the highest wage budget I rate him slightly above average, as a premiership manager I would probably take 17 of the current crop over him, excluding only mccarth, laws and allardyce.

 

If he gets us up he deserves a shot, however, I feel the first 2 months will be crucial to his and our survival.

 

[Stu]

Hughton has done one or two decent things, but on the whole I maintain we are top in spite of him rather than because of him.

 

So he's done a poor job or an average job?

 

Average, but far from good enough.

 

So he hasn't done good enough? Despite exceeding most fans expectations.

 

Or are you merely saying he's far from good enough for the premiership?

 

If the opposition weren't such piss-poor finishers, we wouldn't be where we are - that's his fault.

 

The fact we are top has been down to a little touch of quality from certain players and some luck.

 

I find your comments ludachris.

 

Shirley?

[Stu]

as a championship manager with the highest wage budget I rate him slightly above average

 

 

I fail to see what bearing the wages of the players has on Hughton's abilities (or lack thereof). You're assuming that Hughton has had a significant influence on the wage levels of players signed over the past 3-4 seasons and there's also an insinuation that we the higher-earning players are performing at that level (which I think most fans will agree that they're not).

[TRon]

Hughton has done one or two decent things, but on the whole I maintain we are top in spite of him rather than because of him.

 

So he's done a poor job or an average job?

 

Average, but far from good enough.

 

So he hasn't done good enough? Despite exceeding most fans expectations.

 

Or are you merely saying he's far from good enough for the premiership?

 

If the opposition weren't such piss-poor finishers, we wouldn't be where we are - that's his fault.

 

The fact we are top has been down to a little touch of quality from certain players and some luck.

 

Our midfield has been over run in most games same as last season, so all these claims that we have a quality squad are not really true. Strikers like Carroll and Shola weren't exactly highly regarded either before we went top so I'm not sure it's just about quality. I think we have been fairly well organised all season and that has a lot to do with the defensive success. True we've looked fairly dire going forward but with a static midfield there's not much you can do about that unless you change the personnel. Routledge arriving has given us some options and we have seen a couple of encouraging midfield line ups since the transfer window. West Brom and Forest for all their supposed slick football are still looking up at us from a fair distance so we aren't doing so much wrong it seems.

[Ronaldo]

We've scored 12 goals in our last 3 home games and 1 goal in our last 3 games on the road.

 

This, like it or not is partly down to Hughton.

 

 

Because statistics can say what you want them to say, if you pick the right parameters.

 

Which brings me to this - on the back of our season thus far and purely based on points, Hughton is the best game-for-game manager in the league.  Just thought I'd point that out.

 

It's a valid comparison because more or less the same players were available.

[chicago_shearer]

Hughton deserves credit for this year, it's ludicrous to try and suggest he's not had a massive role in the success we've had this year.

 

Do we have better players than pretty much everyone else in the league? Yes, we do. Have we been lucky at points this year? Yes, but everyone has luck on their side from time to time.

 

Hughton took a rotten dressing room and has them playing together as a team.

 

I think he'll get found out very badly in the Premiership if we go up and he stays in charge, but that doesn't mean I have to pretend he's done a bad job this year.

 

I agree with that. 

 

I suspect there are only a handful of managers in the Premiership who would be likely to succeed wherever they went.  A very small and talented elite.  And I doubt we are capable of attracting one of them.  I would certainly not preemptively sack Hughton for some journeyman manager who happens to have more experience in being mediocre in the Premiership than Hughton does.  And I wouldn't sack him for someone without that experience either.  It isn't worth the risk involved in potentially destabilizing the club and unsettling the players that seem to have his confidence.  Without a billionaire to speed things up, then consistency is your best path to success.  I've noticed a strong correlation between success on the pitch and not replacing your manager four times in one season. 

 

 

 

[TRon]

Hughton deserves credit for this year, it's ludicrous to try and suggest he's not had a massive role in the success we've had this year.

 

Do we have better players than pretty much everyone else in the league? Yes, we do. Have we been lucky at points this year? Yes, but everyone has luck on their side from time to time.

 

Hughton took a rotten dressing room and has them playing together as a team.

 

I think he'll get found out very badly in the Premiership if we go up and he stays in charge, but that doesn't mean I have to pretend he's done a bad job this year.

 

I agree with that. 

 

I suspect there are only a handful of managers in the Premiership who would be likely to succeed wherever they went.  A very small and talented elite.  And I doubt we are capable of attracting one of them.  I would certainly not preemptively sack Hughton for some journeyman manager who happens to have more experience in being mediocre in the Premiership than Hughton does.  And I wouldn't sack him for someone without that experience either.  It isn't worth the risk involved in potentially destabilizing the club and unsettling the players that seem to have his confidence.  Without a billionaire to speed things up, then consistency is your best path to success.  I've noticed a strong correlation between success on the pitch and not replacing your manager four times in one season. 

 

 

 

 

Very well said. There are far more shite managers out there than good ones. Unless we have someone exceptional lined up I'd rather spend the money on players tbh.

[Heron]

I wonder what the players would think of the idea that Hughton couldn't handle us in the Premier'. I bet they'd disagree...

[Rob W]

remember - he never wanted the job to start with

 

I'm amazed at what he's achieved

[macca888]

He has done a great job under exceptionally difficult circumstances but we should remember the quality of the opposition we have faced this year against the quality of players in our squad. Most of our squad are seasoned experienced premiership players and although they have adapted well to the CCC, their experience and class difference should have seen us exactly where we are.

 

The main thing for me is that the only team we have played this season that can come anywhere near premiership class is WBA and we have failed to beat them over 3 games.

 

Hughton has done a great job at CCC level but much of this ios down to the experience of the players he has at his disposal rather than his tactical nouse. I think he will struggle as a manager in the PL and I think it is obvious when you see us played off the park footballing wise by the likes of Swansea.

 

Having said that, there are about 7 or 8 teams in the PL at the moment who wouldnt worry me if we came up against them tomorrow so I can see us surviving up there, with a couple of very shrewd signings, but a better manager and keeping CH on as coach.

[ikri]

I wonder what the players would think of the idea that Hughton couldn't handle us in the Premier'. I bet they'd disagree...

 

Which teacher did you prefer at school?  The teacher who let you did whatever you want & never even attempted to discipline people or the teacher who told you to shut up & get on with your work?

 

Whilst I don't necessarily want a disciplinarian manager (we've tried that with Souness), I do want a manager who knows what they're doing and who has enough respect from the players that when they're told to do something, they do it instead of forming a committee to decide among themselves what to do.

 

I don't really care what the players want, some of the more senior players have woeful fitness levels that don't seem to be being addressed, we still have players making the most fundamental errors during games (not bothering to look up before passing), too many players still have less movement than a traffic cone.  These are really basic parts of the game that haven't been addressed since last season and don't look like they'll ever be addressed by Hughton because he's too willing to let the players get away with doing the absolute minimum necessary.

 

I have no problems with Hughton as a coach and will congratulate him for his efforts to get us promoted at the end of the season, but I want a manager next season, not a friendly coach. 

[David28]

remember - he never wanted the job to start with

 

I'm amazed at what he's achieved

 

He didn't really say he does not want it, did he? He always said something like "I'm enjoying to work with this group of lads".

So he never really wanted to rule himself out of it.