[Albion] Chris Hughton statement

[Justice]

And I'm afraid for a club like ours that must continue to be the only target for the next few years. For the size of our club abd the limited playing budget we have Chris Hughton did a brilliant job.

I'm so sorry this decision was made Chris.

TB wants progression and probably doesn’t share your thoughts.

 

[father_and_son]

Absolutely I'm dissapointed in those rewriting history and showing no respect for him and being dismissive of his very respectful statement.

Not seeing any rewriting going on here...

People are expressing surprise he was surprised... because c'mon, he hasn't been living in a cave.

 

[Goldstone1976]

2 “The b’stards had more targets for me than they told me. That’s not on”

The target was to preserve Premier League status with a bottom three. This was achieved.

Yes, exactly.

He did indeed.

However, it seems he lost the faith of the chairman that he could do it again next year.

Which is the most likely example of my option 2.

From Tony's perspective - it's not unreasonable.

From Chris', it might have been "Whoa - you never said that at interview and it's not in my contract. That's simply not fair - it means you could sack me at any time - all you have to do is say 'Yeah, but I've lost confidence in you'". The counterargument? "Welcome to football in the PL - that's the nature of the beast, and why you got paid the big bucks. Life's a bitch"

 

[Gazwag]

This praise for getting to the FA Cup semi is a bit silly really.

We beat Bournemouth reserves, got taken to a second leg and extra time against West Brom with Glenn Murray's cock saving the day, scraped past a second-string Derby team at home and were saved by a goalkeeping howler in a shambolic performance against Millwall.

The history books will always show he was the manager who took us further in the cup than we had been for 36 years, a large proportion of our fans were not alive when we got to the final in 1983 so would know or really care that we got by far the easier semi final and we stumbled over the line to get to the final and the same will be true when their children are in the stands.

 

[ozzygull]

I'm getting a bit angry about this message that is doing the rounds unchallenged...

“He has helped transform Brighton & Hove Albion, from fighting relegation to League One."

Yes, we were headed down the table, thanks to the disastrous tenure of Hyypia. However, the squad that Chris inherited was not broken. We had competed for play off finals in previous seasons under Gus and Oscar. The players, backroom and club management were all strong.

There is this underlying idea going around that Chris single-handily rescued the club from oblivion and took them into the Premier League. That simply isn't true, and yet it's easy twitter feed.

Chris played a hugely important role in a club full of talented and committed individuals who have brought Brighton its success to date. I'll be ever thankful for him, but he did not do it alone and he did not walk into a club that was in free fall.

Agree! I think if you look at the interviews that Chris did after his first full season he said himself that It did not feel like a club that was in trouble when he joined. I don't think it is CH that is trying claim he saved us from impeding doom, just the headline writers.

 

[Triggaaar]

It wasn't easy, we made it hard for ourselves against second-string Championship sides and totally lucked out against relegation-battling Millwall.

We didn't luck out, the only reason we needed to score at the end was because of poor officiating.

Their first goal saw Murray rugby tackled to make space for Pearce to score. It was a clear foul, missed by the ref.
Their second goal saw the ball sent up-field and hand-balled.
We should have had a penalty.
Locadia also scored what should have been the winner, which was incorrectly ruled out for offside.

It's the most one-sided bit of crap refereeing I can ever remember, so no, we did not luck out.

 

[Weststander]

No mention by Chris or Bevan of racism, because TB is not a racist.

 

[Bry Nylon]

Steve Davis re-launched his career when Spitting Image branded him Steve ‘Interesting’ Davis.

Perhaps Chris could become Chris ‘Surprised’ Hughton?

 

[Mellotron]

Of course CH was acutely aware of our results and performances. Probably more than anyone. Its like saying that fans or indeed journalists, that think Bloom has made a mistake, couldn't possibly have watched a game in 6 months or be aware of the form table. Bloom is not known to be a trigger happy chairman, had given Chris no idea, and Hughton had after everything kept Albion up (his target) so of course he's right to be surprised at being sacked. Few saw it coming. Even the more vocal "Hughton out" constituency on here.

So he was shocked about being fired, despite us breaking records for how shit we were? He must've thought it was a possibility.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Not sure where you're getting 'easy' from. It wasn't easy, we made it hard for ourselves against second-string Championship sides and totally lucked out against relegation-battling Millwall. Our performances in the cup were as bad as performances in the league, bar Bournemouth.

I was using easy in the sarcastic form. I thought that was obvious.

I'm getting a bit angry about this message that is doing the rounds unchallenged...

“He has helped transform Brighton & Hove Albion, from fighting relegation to League One."

Yes, we were headed down the table, thanks to the disastrous tenure of Hyypia. However, the squad that Chris inherited was not broken. We had competed for play off finals in previous seasons under Gus and Oscar. The players, backroom and club management were all strong.

There is this underlying idea going around that Chris single-handily rescued the club from oblivion and took them into the Premier League. That simply isn't true, and yet it's easy twitter feed.

Chris played a hugely important role in a club full of talented and committed individuals who have brought Brighton its success to date. I'll be ever thankful for him, but he did not do it alone and he did not walk into a club that was in free fall.

We had actually moved up the table in League One thanks to Nathan Jones getting a draw against Reading and beating Fulham. We were 19th in League One. Oscar Garcia had a load of loan players, and Hyypia had failed dismally, so Hughton had to take over a rag tag of a team to transform them. We were in danger of relegation.
His very first game was an FA cup win at Brentford.

 

[Mellotron]

Do other clubs not go on bad runs and have games where they perform diabolically sometimes? I'm afraid it's always going to happen with the Albion whilst we compete in this division, totally irrespective of who the manager might be.

Eh? Of course they do, and in those moments, the managers are usually aware they might be at risk of the chop - that's how football works. That's what I can't believe - that Hughton was shocked - seems incredibly naive for a man who has been in football as long as he.

It was obvious to everyone that he MIGHT be at risk at the end of the season.

 

[Mellotron]

We didn't luck out, the only reason we needed to score at the end was because of poor officiating.

Their first goal saw Murray rugby tackled to make space for Pearce to score. It was a clear foul, missed by the ref.
Their second goal saw the ball sent up-field and hand-balled.
We should have had a penalty.
Locadia also scored what should have been the winner, which was incorrectly ruled out for offside.

It's the most one-sided bit of crap refereeing I can ever remember, so no, we did not luck out.

Totally agreed. "We were lucky against Millwall" is such a load of bollocks. If the refereeing was even half decent, the game would've ended about 4-1 to us at full time.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

So he was shocked about being fired, despite us breaking records for how shit we were? He must've thought it was a possibility.

I think he thought he had fought back, and rescued us from relegation. He achieved Prem League status for next season. Other managers have been relegated and stayed to get the team promoted again.

 

[father_and_son]

I really think the sacking vs mutual consent thing is just down to CHs insistence on honesty. Even if they had said mutual consent everyone would know he was sacked, so just tel the truth

Plus... Mutual consent has very specific consequences in terms of the clubs obligations under his contract - it says that both parties have agreed to terminate the contract, so it is absolutely in Chris' best interests to not agree to that wording unless he already has an agreed compensation offer (which he wouldn't have at 9:30 on Monday morning because no solicitor would have reviewed and advising signing quite so quickly!).

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

Eh? Of course they do, and in those moments, the managers are usually aware they might be at risk of the chop. That's what I can't believe - that Hughton was shocked. It was obvious to anyone that he MIGHT be at risk at the end of the season.

Even though he had delivered on the one task given to him? Achieving Premier League survival? No mean feat for a club like ours.

 

[chaileyjem]

this was his statement when Norwich sacked him

"I am naturally very disappointed to have lost my job but immensely proud to have served as Norwich City's manager,"
"I understand the recent frustrations, but I remained totally confident that we were on course to create history at the club by retaining our top-flight status and move into a fourth consecutive season in the Premier League. Collectively we were ready for the challenge that the final five games presented (v Fulham, Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal) and we believed we would reward the club and the supporters by achieving that objective."

The LMA statement.
"Chris enjoyed an excellent first season in charge by guiding the club to 11th in the Premier League which was their highest finish in 20 years.
"Chris has an excellent record of managerial success initially with Newcastle and later with Birmingham before he joined Norwich so it is with regret that we see one of our top English managers being dismissed without being given the opportunity to see out the season."

 

[WhingForPresident]

We didn't luck out, the only reason we needed to score at the end was because of poor officiating.

Their first goal saw Murray rugby tackled to make space for Pearce to score. It was a clear foul, missed by the ref.
Their second goal saw the ball sent up-field and hand-balled.
We should have had a penalty.
Locadia also scored what should have been the winner, which was incorrectly ruled out for offside.

It's the most one-sided bit of crap refereeing I can ever remember, so no, we did not luck out.

You're right, the ref was awful, but the performance was largely abysmal against a poor side.

 

[Surf's Up]

He had to go but it's a real pity he wasn't given the opportunity (maybe he was we don't know) to depart by mutual agreement - that would've been more dignified, it would have recognised the excellent job he had done with the club but that we had both come to the point where a parting of the ways was necessary and it would have been more in keeping with the mutual levels of respect held by all parties up to that point.

 

[Arthritic Toe]

My guess is that he was 'surprised' because he was given a target to survive and he achieved it. However Tony Bloom, whilst recognising that, also recognised that we'd only survived due to good fortune (i.e..Cardiff losing to Fulham) and interpreted that as the target as having been missed.

 

[chaileyjem]

So he was shocked about being fired, despite us breaking records for how shit we were? He must've thought it was a possibility.

He says he was "surprised" not shocked.