Chris Hughton’s sacking

It seems a tad harsh…

I don’t want to turn CollinsBeans into a simple signpost for Henry Winter and Martin Kelner (the latter has two very good recent articles by the way – one on the Ashes coverage if you’re interested) but I think Winter has again written a very eloquent piece on the sacking of Chris Hughton. This is copied below.

I doubted Hughton at the start of the campaign, but have been quietly impressed by the man over the last few months. Considering the squad at his disposal, you can’t really argue with 11th place in the table either. I don’t know for sure that Hughton has the expertise to take Newcastle onto great things, but considering the club’s recent instability, it is flabbergasting that he’s been sacked. At this point in time, surely all Newcastle can possibly be looking for is Premier League survival. And Hughton was well on the way to delivering that.

Mike Ashley has once again taken the brunt of fan and expert’s abuse, and who can blame them? He’s an unlikable man at the best of times, and this latest decision really does baffle. And who really wants this job now? It’s certainly going to be a brave man who accepts the cheap sportswear salesman as their boss.

Henry Winter: Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley has shown absolutely no class in sacking Chris Hughton

Move over Sepp Blatter; you’ve got a rival as the Sultan of Shameless.

A long-standing, well-fancied contender for the title, Mike Ashley may just have slipped ahead of Blatter. Ashley’s decision to sack Chris Hughton demonstrated everything you needed to know about the Newcastle United chairman’s absence of class as a human being and an employer.

In dismissing Hughton, Ashley has done more than mistreat one of English football’s most popular and promising managers, an uncomplaining character who has dealt well with the many problems thrown at him on Tyneside. Ashley has shown contempt to Newcastle’s passionate supporters, who will be there on Gallowgate long after Ashley has sold up and sloped back south.

None of the Toon Army’s many foot soldiers racing to the phone-ins, Twitter and online forums could find any sense in Hughton’s defenestration. They liked Hughton, respecting his desire to take the post when nobody else would touch it.

Newcastle’s followers admired Hughton’s dignity and lack of ego. They enjoyed his commitment to attacking football, particularly loving results like Newcastle 5 Sunderland 1. They chanted Hughton’s name, backed him relentlessly, and now he’s sacked.

If Ashley behaved in similar offhand fashion towards customers at his sports merchandise emporium his business would not survive long.Newcastle fans deserve so much better. No wonder they were enraged.

Of the many critical comments made about Ashley, one of the comical ones hit home hardest: apparently Gazza turned up at St James’ with some sandwiches and some beer, asking to see Ashley before he did something stupid.

No laughter could drown out the howls of anger. No whisper of the old favourite that usually prefaces sackings, “losing the dressing room”, could be heard. If Newcastle players could be accused of lacking heart in the 3-1 defeat to West Brom it may have been that they knew what was going on, that Hughton was on borrowed time.

Now their immediate fortunes will be overseen by Peter Beardsley, who is close to Ashley but not the players. Beardsley loves his trips to London for West End shows and now he is cast in the role of The Caretaker. It promises to be a short run.

The frontrunner to take over at Ashley’s Circus is Martin Jol, a decent enough option but hardly brimming with the experience and stellar appeal that might mollify a seething St James’ Park.

The problem with any manager of genuine substance like Martin O’Neill considering joining Newcastle is that Ashley wants to sell the club. Whoever goes for the Newcastle manager’s job knows that new owners could arrive in 2011 and want to install their own man. Applier beware. Whether Jol, O'Neill or Alan Pardew, whoever arrives would be advised to check the small print in an Ashley contract. Good luck - and make sure you buy a return ticket..

What is particularly inexplicable is that Hughton fitted Ashley’s template for being inexpensive in salary and budgetary requirements.

He blooded youngsters. He delivered promotion back to the Premier League and had the Toon punching above their weight, currently sitting 11th on 19 points. Five more wins and a couple of draws will probably secure their elite status.

Ashley’s people praised Hughton’s work in the team’s “transition” from Championship to Premier League. Transition? Miracle more like.

After years of instability, Newcastle actually seemed settled.

But then came Ashley, not just rocking the boat but overturning it in the Tyne. How naive. When a series of storms rolled towards St James’, Hughton handled them well.

He has worked hard in trying to make Andy Carroll a better person as well as a better player. Hughton never whinged when Hatem Ben Arfa was incapacitated by Nigel de Jong. He just got on with it.

When injury and suspension deprived him of his first-choice centre-halves, Hughton just scrambled the ageing and the creaking, Sol Campbell and Steven Taylor, who performed wonders for him in taming Didier Drogba in the draw with Chelsea. They were given the runabout by Peter Odemwingie at The Hawthorns on Sunday but, in hindsight, it seemed the whole team were in mourning for something.

Make that someone. Hughton was well-liked in the dressing-room, where the players respected his unflappability despite losing his No 2 Colin Calderwood. People within the British game clearly felt Hughton and his coaching staff were doing a good job as Calderwood was head-hunted by Hibernian. Hughton will have no problem finding employment. West Ham could be available soon.

In public and private, Hughton has been the model of discretion. He is not a man to dwell on his role in triumphs, whether as a nimble, industrious full-back for Tottenham Hotspur in the 1984 Uefa Cup final or in lifting the Championship trophy.

He didn’t rush to bask in the limelight after such memorable victories this season at Everton and Arsenal or crow after such triumphs over Sunderland or Aston Villa. Hughton is too classy a man, too keen to praise the exertions of his players and too respectful towards vanquished opponents.

Hughton leaves with the ingratitude of the board but with the thanks and sympathy of the people who matter, the fans and players. On his way out of St James’, politely declining comment, Hughton could hold his head high.

Not Ashley, who was busy releasing a statement that took hypocrisy to new levels. He praised Hughton’s “exceptional character and commitment”, exactly the traits Ashley is bereft of. Hughton out, Ashley remains. English football has lost a principled man but kept a shameless chairman.