Chris Hughton’s sacking seems like an awfully long time ago now. Newcastle fans were devastated and opposition fans were perplexed. It was a move that just didn’t appear to make any sense. During his brief reign at the club Hughton had done a stand-up job and deserved better treatment. When I ask if Ashley was right to sack Hughton, I don’t mean was he right in the moral sense, because Chris had done nothing to merit his dismissal. But surely it is worth considering that it may actually have been the best move for the club?
Many Newcastle fans were flabbergasted with Alan Pardew’s appointment and saw him as something of a step-down in class. He has turned out to be anything but. Discounting the second-half of last season where he seemed to be biding his time until the summer, he’s had an excellent start to his Newcastle tenure.
I remember fans at the time claiming that Pardew couldn’t match Hughton in terms of man management, but it strikes me that Pardew’s getting the most he possibly can out of each and every one of his players right now. Furthermore, I can’t help but feel that Pardew is tactically more astute that Hughton too. Not such a step-down after all.
Hughton had managed to obtain the backing of both players and fans, something of a rare occurrence on Tyneside and deserved more of a chance to show what he could do. Mike Ashley’s decision to send him packing could well have triggered a mutiny in the dressing room and potentially another relegation for the club. It was simply awful timing.
Luckily Pardew proved to be a better manager than most people thought and over the course of his ten months in charge he has more than proven that he knows how to galvanise a dressing room. It’s not like Pardew has had an easy ride. He has overseen some high profile departures that led fans to question the future of the team.
Instead, Newcastle has only grown stronger and Pardew deserves a healthy share of the credit for how the club has improved. Given his professionalism and ability, is there anybody out there who really believes that Hughton is the better manager?
Still, that doesn’t make the decision to sack Chris any more right. Strange though that what first appeared to be a moment of madness may end up being one of the best decisions of Ashley’s career.
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Hughton signings – Perch, Sol Cambell, Simpson, Lovenkrands, Williamson, Routledge, Ranger, enough said
Alan Pardew has done a superb job so far, defiling the odds and keeping Newcastle in the top four. He does appear to have good man-management skills. Mike Ashley probably just gambled on his luck, getting a manager whom he was familiar with; thankfully, it hasn’t turned into a disaster.
Ashley treats Newcastle the same as a Casino – either win or lose the bet. It’s still early days. However, what he could at least do to make the impossible become possible is to invest in January, a striker and a right back are needed since Simpson doesn’t inspire us with his average footballing skills.
Back to Pardew, his substitutions can be weird at times, but at least he is trying to make Newcastle to play carpet football, the free flowing football that has been missing since the departure of Sir Bobby, so huge credit to him. Under Hughton, he had a different set of players which were more suit to “Hoof ball”, also, Hughton just wouldn’t substitute any of his players until the 80 minutes or so. While he wasn’t a bad manager, some of his decisions were dubious.
In conclusion, I’m more inclined to believe Pardew is a better manager than Hughton, due to his style and his willingness to change a team, something Hughton lacked. As for Ashley, if he’s willing to invest when the January window is reopened, then he may very well be onto a nice reward.
It’s early days for this kind of article I’d say. Look at the league today and you can build any favourable argument you like, but it only works until we drop off – which sadly we will. Plus let’s not forget that was Hughton’s first role in management, and his first ever season in the top tier. He didn’t have lots of cash and his main signing, Arfa was injured throughout.
Plus – hughton’s coaching abilities meant we started to develop younger players and take them to the next level, from within once more – something we haven’t done in years. It was Hughton who took Carroll from a raw kid to the England no. 9 shirt, for e.g.
At NUFC the tempting of providence is never a good idea.
First off, the club has actually made some proper summer signings – unlike 2010/11 when Mr Hughton was starved of promised funds to strengthen a Championship squad with the ‘Messrs-make-and-mend’ Perch, Gosling & Campbell trio the only arrivals until Ben Arfa briefly lit up the room.
In spite of less than enthusiastic boardroom backing and a depleted squad, Mr Hughton still turned a faltering club around and restored the cash value for current owner & potential future investors (not to mention restoring pride for the fans). His brand of football was ‘team first’, effective and tidy in a Dutch sort of way – it also produced goals, it encouraged youth talent, and could be a joy to watch. It was never ‘Hoof ball’, as Kain contends. Oh, you are a fickle and forgetful audience at times…
That Mr Pardew is making a decent fist of things so far is primarily because he had a solid foundation thanks to Mr Hughton’s diligence. As this season’s easy start fades away & the opposition toughens up (and those lucky on-field decisions swing the other way) it is hard to see how our current lofty position can be maintained, especially if the lacklustre Wolves and QPR performances are repeated too often.
However, if Mr Pardew can keep this 2 points per game return going (or anything remotely close), then my hat will be unreservedly doffed to him (in fact he can have it); but for the moment it remains pulled down firmly over my ears in anticipation of the autumn / winter fixture list and the inevitable reality check playing against half decent Premiership teams will force upon everyone.
I still think we lost a treasure when Mr Hughton was sacked, the fact that so many fans with short memories now seem to think otherwise suggests Ashley’s decision might well turn out to be the right one – for Mr Hughton!
A bit of a cheap and lazy article, short on real evidence of its thesis, and definitely premature – are we even 25% through the season yet?
As for who is better, both Pardew and Chris are good, just with different strengths. Chris has Championship success, who brought a club to promotion albeit from a lower level, while Pardew is a Premiership also-ran, who had some modest success, but also saw his own club relegated (or there about’s, …if he hadn’t been sacked first). NUFC would be doing well with Chris or Pardew, either way – though the proof of that pudding is in eating it at the end of the season and seeing what the entire journey turns out like.
Ashley’s decision was still a bad decision though. It was a risk that he didn’t need to take – that naive foolishness, together with the personal rudeness of it and the way it exposed NUFC as an unprofessional venture, is what makes the decision a bad one. Getting Pardew wasn’t bad, but neither would have been keeping Chris either – getting rid of Chris, and in the way he did it, is what was bad.
‘Ashley’s decision…’
Your final paragraph is very soundly argued and says it all really. Such a pity sensationalism has become the new journalism as websites desperately chase advertising revenue.
Yes,