Newcastle United have officially announced the departure of manager Chris Hughton. The 51 year old, who guided the Magpies from the Championship back to the Premier League, was axed after Newcastle lost 3-1 to West Bromwich Albion on Sunday.
Fans have reacted angrily to Hughton’s sacking, saying that Newcastle had made a mistake in sacking the man who brought stability back to Tyneside by getting them back into the Premier League.
Newcastle were 11th in the league prior to Hughton’s departure. He had also overseen a 5-1 thrashing of North East rivals Sunderland and a 6-0 walloping of Aston Villa in his tenure as Magpies manager.
The Wikipedia entry for Chris Houghton said for a brief while that ” he was sacked by chubby clown Mike Ashley” before the online encyclopedia’s editors got their act together and deleted the two offending words.
Former Toon star Rob Lee’s response to Hughton’s sacking :-
“I’m amazed. It’s totally unjust if you consider what he did for the club.
He got them back where they belong in the Premiership when they were on their knees. There must have been something going on we didn’t know about because why wasn’t he just given a contract. This will upset the fans – I’m sure there will be uproar.”
Unbelievable, well not really, is it. I’m a Birmingham City supporter so I think I know a thing or two about the lack of boardroom dignity. If the board at Newcastle ever needed to know anything about it, they need look no further than Chris Hughton. The man has been an example to many managers who have to operate under tight contraints after previous men in charge have blown fortunes on overpaid has – beens & left to pick up the pieces following the abject failure of those before him. I have nothing but praise for this man. His professionalism, approach to the media, his rapport with the Newcastle supporters & his dignity throughout his tenure have been impeccable. He can be proud of the way he conducted himself. Shame the people he put faith & trust in, could not behave in the same dignified manner.
Newcastle United will be very hard pressed to find a better man to manage the team than Chris Hughton. He is an example to all aspiring managers and has been the best thing to happen at St James’ Park since Bobby Robson was appointed. All real fans of the club will be devasted by this latest piece of owner’s lunacy.
Once again the directors at NUFC have demonstrated their unsurpassed ability to shoot themselves in the foot, After all the idiotic decisions they made two seasons ago which led to their relegation they finally had a manager who had brought some level of stability to the team. As a lifelong NUFC supporter I never expected them to bounce back to the Premier straight away and win the Championship in such convincing style and yet here we are, not even a third of the way through the season, when none of the teams in the middle of the table are showing any consistency, sacking Chris Hughton who has done a marvellous job for the club given the club’s circumstances. Ashley and his ilk should hang their heads with shame – surely no top rate manager in his right mind would want this job. The fortunes of this once great club will never change until Ashley and his cronies are gone.