[Albion] Chris Hughton statement

[Mellotron]

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

Blimey, you were obviously in a lot more board meetings than any of us, to know that was the ONLY target set this season. Please, tell us more.

 

[WhingForPresident]

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

Cool rebuttal

 

[Triggaaar]

“Surprised” is the interesting word. I can’t interpret it in any more than only three ways:

Or how about 'I knew we hadn't achieved the football the board wanted, but we had survived, and I thought I had the confidence of the board to take us forward next season'.

I don't think our drop in form was solely down to Chris. Some players under-performed, a lot of refereeing decisions went against us, and some opposition strikers hit form against us. Chris may have felt that way, and felt that despite not doing as well as the board would have liked, he'd still be the right man to help us progress.

 

[Mellotron]

He says he was "surprised" not shocked.

Fine, if you want to do semantics - it was naive of him to be surprised, given how poorly we were performing.

 

[TSB]

Classy guy.
Will be hugely missed by all decent supporters.

 

[Bold Seagull]

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.

There is truth to it.

By the end of 13/14, from the previously successful play off challenges we lost:
Ulloa
Buckley
Barnes
Bridcutt
Lopez
Orlandi
Upson
Lingard
Ward
amoung others.

This culminated in a disastrous period of using loans that basically reaped it's rewards in the 2014/15 season where we had 10 or so loans that frankly took the piss.

The recruitment was changed, Burke went, it was restructured. How much Hughton played a part in this, who knows, but we started with solid signings 15/16, and 3 loans that included Sidwell, Wilson and Ridgewell. I don't think you can say what he inherited wasn't broken - it really was, the loan strategy nearly destroyed any remaining team spirit or belief at the club.

We were going down without Hughton steadying the ship. There really is no rewriting that. Then to take that team, of shattered belief and confidence, and lift them to within GD of promotion, I don't think you can reduce that transformation. Then to miss out with the worse luck you can imagine, both at Boro and in the PlayOffs, we went again and were even stronger.

The team spirit Hughton achieved perhaps up to this year was incredible. Got to say, think you're wrong on this one.

 

[Mellotron]

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.

We survived mostly thanks to Cardiff being shitter than us. It was hardly The Great Escape a la Russell Slade.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Pointless? why? He has probably done more for our football club than any manager in living memory. He fully deserves an epiaph to his time with us. .

Of course he has, and I don't think anybody is suggesting otherwise??

I've every respect for Chris Hughton. Decent bloke and a decent football manager.

All I meant was that the STATEMENT itself was pointless, in that it basically says nothing

 

[father_and_son]

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

How do you know that was the only objective?
That may have been the obvious one but I strongly suspect he had others that weren't met.

 

[Hamilton]

Really?

He has helped (not masterminded or solely responsible for) transform Brighton & Hove Albion, You don't think he helped transform the first team? from fighting relegation to League One (exactly the position we were in when he joined)

You think this narrative is unjust? overly flattering?

If he has to carry the can for perceived failures, then at least give him the credit for his successes.

Yes, really.

It's inflated in such a way that the word 'helped' gets lost. What people see is 'Chris transformed Brighton'.

We were headed towards relegation, but once Hyypia was replaced I was confident that we would not be relegated. We needed a tactical change at that point, not master surgery.

I think the narrative is inaccurate. Chris should be thanked for his role as part of a wider team and it should be recognised that he has been one part of a highly effective management team. However, management teams change and new skills are required as the world changes. Chris's skills were what we needed, and we thank him. Now we need another aspect to change. I'm sure other roles behind the scenes have also changed as the club has moved into a new world and they have not been able to step up. That's the reality sometimes.

 

[Mellotron]

Of course he has, and I don't think anybody is suggesting otherwise??

I've every respect for Chris Hughton. Decent bloke and a decent football manager.

All I meant was that the STATEMENT itself was pointless, in that it basically says nothing

The fact he didn't thank TB is at least interesting...

 

[hans kraay fan club]

We survived mostly thanks to Cardiff being shitter than us. .

That is basically how league tables work.

 

[Goldstone1976]

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.

Hmm. A target like "Retain our PL status" is unambiguous - like any decent target should be, it's totally not open to interpretation.

I think it's far more likely (as others have said) that TB decided that Chris was a) unlikely to repeat the feat next season and that anyway b) he wanted a different type of football played next year - which is why he recruited Dan Ashworth in Sept 2018 (although he didn't start until Feb this year).

IF this is correct, and IF Tony didn't tell Chris either of these things, then it's reasonable for Chris to be "surprised".

 

[Mellotron]

That is basically how league tables work.

Obviously - you've bizarrely chosen to edit my statement and deliberately ignore the context.

I'm disputing the narrative of Chris "rescuing" us, that makes it sound like we suddenly turned on the style and won multiple games to save our season. We were bloody lucky to stay up.

Chris didn't rescue us. Cardiff rescued us.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

The fact he didn't thank TB is at least interesting...

If the only interesting thing 'in' a statement, is something that actually ISN'T in it, then you've pretty much reinforced my point.

 

[Triggaaar]

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

Millwall had beaten Everton at home, and had the ref got things right, they'd have lost against us in normal time. That's a good enough performance. It's unrealistic to think we should just go away to a motivated Championship side and smash them.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Yes, really.

It's inflated in such a way that the word 'helped' gets lost. What people see is 'Chris transformed Brighton'.

We were headed towards relegation, but once Hyypia was replaced I was confident that we would not be relegated. We needed a tactical change at that point, not master surgery.

I think the narrative is inaccurate. Chris should be thanked for his role as part of a wider team and it should be recognised that he has been one part of a highly effective management team. However, management teams change and new skills are required as the world changes. Chris's skills were what we needed, and we thank him. Now we need another aspect to change. I'm sure other roles behind the scenes have also changed as the club has moved into a new world and they have not been able to step up. That's the reality sometimes.

That is hindsight with 20/20 vision. I doubt very much many people thought we would avoid relegation in Dec 2014.

 

[Triggaaar]

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.

Well I don't know about the scoreline, but I agree we'd have won well enough in normal time.

 

[Mellotron]

If the only interesting thing 'in' a statement, is something that actually ISN'T in it, then you've pretty much reinforced my point.

Still pretty interesting.

 

[Wellesley]

Yeah, so easy, why did we wait 36 in between each semi final appearance?

I get your point, but after being in the bottom two tiers, it's a huge advantage entering at the 4th round stage and having spent a fair few million on players. Totally different to the task faced by previous managers. We were very lucky with the draw too.