Apologoes if fixtures:
FOOTBALL | CHRIS HUGHTON INTERVIEW
Chris Hughton: Black people come up and say – we need you back in the game
The former Brighton & Hove Albion manager explains to Alyson Rudd that football has a duty to provide more chances for minorities
Alyson Rudd
July 6 2019, 12:01am,
The Times
Premier League
Football
Hughton says his sacking by Brighton at the end of the season was a complete shock
Chris Hughton arrived at the Brighton & Hove Albion training ground the day after the final game of the season, full of energy for pre-season plotting. The atmosphere inside the Amex stadium had been jolly. The team had avoided relegation and had reached the semi-final of the FA Cup. There was much for Hughton to digest, even celebrate, but the thought of being sacked was not on his radar.
Indeed, when Tony Bloom, the chairman, told the former Spurs defender that he was out of a job, he was so shocked that he could not speak. Yes, Hughton was surprised to see the chairman at the training ground but even that did not make him suspicious.
“The biggest disappointment is that I never saw it coming,” the 60-year-old says. “As a manager you get a feel when things are not right or relationships have broken down, but there was never anything there for me to feel what was coming. I thought the chairman was in there for club stuff or if he was there to see me it was about the pre-season, so it was a big shock. For a moment I couldn’t say anything. I absolutely wasn’t expecting it, I was stunned, there was a silence.”
He thought of various ripostes in the subsequent hours but accepts it would not have changed a thing. Few managers change an owner’s mind with a clever retort.
Perhaps, though, Hughton could have simply coughed while uttering the word “Fulham” in the manner of Eric Morecambe, who famously used to splutter a half-disguised shout of “Arsenal”.
After all, while Fulham may have played more expansively than Brighton, they suffered from lack of pragmatism and were relegated. Hughton avoided that fate. He set the team up, he says, in the best way to achieve a result while always believing that he could win every match.
“Brighton reaching the Premier League, Brighton staying in there and never being in the bottom three of the Premier League, for me that is achieving,” he said. “I am very conscious that the second half of the season was not as good as the first and it was not a rosy situation. I get the feel of the club and the atmosphere was good at that last game [against Manchester City].
“I spent four and a half years there and never had an argument with the chairman, never had an argument with Paul Barber [the chief executive], never had an argument with Dan Ashworth [the technical director]. I’m certainly not bitter. If you end up bitter, you’re the only one who loses out. It was the club’s prerogative.”
This is only the second time in his career that Hughton has not been involved in pre-season planning. He is relaxed about it but the fact he is busy clearing out various garages hints at a man not comfortable with time on his hands.
“I’m prepared to wait for the right challenge but I want to get back into management,” he said. “I’m in a good place, I’m not desperate to be working tomorrow. I want to manage at the best level possible. I’ve managed three teams [Newcastle, Norwich and Brighton] in the Premier League and two of them, me and my staff brought up to the Premier League.
“I’m not saying no to a Championship appointment. I’d love to go in as a Premier League manager but the reality is that managers like myself have to take a team from the Championship to become Premier League managers.”
Hughton wants to get back in the game but accepts he may have to take a job at a second-tier club
There is another reason Hughton wants to return to high-level management. There is a subconscious bias in a sport that has too few black managers. If you do not see black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) coaches succeeding then owners are reluctant to take a risk on them.
Hughton played the game in an era when black players, he says, were not considered viable captains. The doubts now are about their managerial capability. Brighton were beaten in the FA Cup semi-final by Manchester City but he accepts that had he been able to hold aloft the trophy, it could have shifted perceptions.
“I am increasingly motivated by being a black manager and the profile that comes with it,” he explains. “I travel on trains and tubes and more and more black people come up to me and say ‘we need you in there’.”
The EFL has introduced a rule that clubs must interview at least one BAME candidate when recruiting a first-team manager — similar to the Rooney Rule in the NFL. Would Hughton turn up to an interview if he thought he was simply fulfilling a quota?
“The answer is yes and no,” he says. “I do believe in a form of Rooney ruling. It’s not ideal but it’s something. The FA now include a BAME coach in each of their teams. That’s a positive. It’s acknowledging more should be done. Some individuals will be interviewed simply because they are black but the alternative is that they don’t get interviewed at all.”
Would he feel patronised or chuffed if an owner told him that he had two excellent candidates and he was picking Hughton in order to make a statement on diversity?
“That’s difficult but I would say certainly I would feel more chuffed because otherwise in five years we could still be waiting for the change to happen,” he says. “It’s almost like the system owes us for so many years of abuse. The game and the stakeholders have a duty to provide something like the Rooney Rule.”
He is, quietly, a political animal. He is still a member of the Labour Party. Its stance on Brexit — he voted Remain — and the controversy over anti-Semitism bother him, but football has been all-consuming and as a consequence, he says: “I’m less enthusiastic about politics.”
The upside of his enforced summer break is that Hughton was able to visit Wimbledon for the first time. “Tennis can teach you about levels,” he says. “I watched [Roger] Federer [against Lloyd Harris] and it was like watching a lesser team in the Premier League facing Liverpool. They start well, score the first goal but then the opposition’s class wears you down. The small proportion inside Centre Court who did not know their tennis would have thought, after Harris won the first set, ‘there’s an upset on here,’ but it was clear class would win through.”
When Hughton next attends an interview and is asked what he would bring to a club, he says he would reply that: “I am ambitious but not motivated by ambition. I’m motivated by doing the job I’ve been asked to do. I have a work ethic — and that doesn’t mean you get success — but I give everything to the job I’m doing.”
The FA Cup run had a negative impact on Brighton’s league performances — they finished a place and two points above the relegation zone — but Hughton does not regret it.
“I would not have changed it because I’d been at the club long enough to know the cup run meant more to the supporters than it meant to me,” he says. “I could hear it and feel it.”
He was proud, at Brighton, of meeting the requirements of promotion and then retaining top-flight status. “I try to be as honest and direct as possible, I’m comfortable with confrontation but don’t look for it,” he says. “I know there are managers who would be more expansive but my style is geared to what I have but also to what I think will give us the best options of an end product.”
He did try to instil a more possession-based style after three narrow wins in October that felt a tad too lucky but the change did not reap goals or chances, which makes it even more surprising that he is one of the more restrained managers when celebrating a goal. “I’m probably thinking too much to celebrate, thinking, ‘hold on, let’s see what happens next’, and I’m not a running down the touchline sort of person anyway. But what I feel is no different to what Jürgen Klopp feels or Ian Holloway feels. Sometimes I go to my office alone, after the game, and punch the sky.”
21st
Brighton’s Championship position when Hughton took charge in December 2014. They finished 20th and 3rd before sealing promotion in 2017
Hughton the pathfinder
Hughton has spent more time in charge of league clubs than any other homegrown black, Asian and ethnic minority manager over the past ten years.
Chris Hughton
8 years, 10 months (Newcastle 1y 7m; Birmingham 1y; Norwich 1y 10m; Brighton 4y 5m)
Chris Powell
5 years, 6 months (Charlton 3y 2m; Huddersfield 1y 2m; Southend 1y 2m)
Keith Curle
5 years, 5 months (Notts Co 1y; Carlisle 3y 8m; Northampton 9m — present job)
Paul Ince
2 years 3 months (MK Dons 10m; Notts Co 6m; Blackpool 11m)
Darren Moore
11 months (West Brom)
Chris Ramsey
9 months (QPR)
Sol Campbell
8 months (Macclesfield – present)
Chris Kiwomya
8 months (Notts Co)
Keith Alexander
7 months (Macclesfield)
Marcus Bignot
5 months (Grimsby)
Terry Connor
5 months (Wolves)
John Barnes
4 months (Tranmere)
FOOTBALL | CHRIS HUGHTON INTERVIEW
Chris Hughton: Black people come up and say – we need you back in the game
The former Brighton & Hove Albion manager explains to Alyson Rudd that football has a duty to provide more chances for minorities
Alyson Rudd
July 6 2019, 12:01am,
The Times
Premier League
Football
Hughton says his sacking by Brighton at the end of the season was a complete shock
Chris Hughton arrived at the Brighton & Hove Albion training ground the day after the final game of the season, full of energy for pre-season plotting. The atmosphere inside the Amex stadium had been jolly. The team had avoided relegation and had reached the semi-final of the FA Cup. There was much for Hughton to digest, even celebrate, but the thought of being sacked was not on his radar.
Indeed, when Tony Bloom, the chairman, told the former Spurs defender that he was out of a job, he was so shocked that he could not speak. Yes, Hughton was surprised to see the chairman at the training ground but even that did not make him suspicious.
“The biggest disappointment is that I never saw it coming,” the 60-year-old says. “As a manager you get a feel when things are not right or relationships have broken down, but there was never anything there for me to feel what was coming. I thought the chairman was in there for club stuff or if he was there to see me it was about the pre-season, so it was a big shock. For a moment I couldn’t say anything. I absolutely wasn’t expecting it, I was stunned, there was a silence.”
He thought of various ripostes in the subsequent hours but accepts it would not have changed a thing. Few managers change an owner’s mind with a clever retort.
Perhaps, though, Hughton could have simply coughed while uttering the word “Fulham” in the manner of Eric Morecambe, who famously used to splutter a half-disguised shout of “Arsenal”.
After all, while Fulham may have played more expansively than Brighton, they suffered from lack of pragmatism and were relegated. Hughton avoided that fate. He set the team up, he says, in the best way to achieve a result while always believing that he could win every match.
“Brighton reaching the Premier League, Brighton staying in there and never being in the bottom three of the Premier League, for me that is achieving,” he said. “I am very conscious that the second half of the season was not as good as the first and it was not a rosy situation. I get the feel of the club and the atmosphere was good at that last game [against Manchester City].
“I spent four and a half years there and never had an argument with the chairman, never had an argument with Paul Barber [the chief executive], never had an argument with Dan Ashworth [the technical director]. I’m certainly not bitter. If you end up bitter, you’re the only one who loses out. It was the club’s prerogative.”
This is only the second time in his career that Hughton has not been involved in pre-season planning. He is relaxed about it but the fact he is busy clearing out various garages hints at a man not comfortable with time on his hands.
“I’m prepared to wait for the right challenge but I want to get back into management,” he said. “I’m in a good place, I’m not desperate to be working tomorrow. I want to manage at the best level possible. I’ve managed three teams [Newcastle, Norwich and Brighton] in the Premier League and two of them, me and my staff brought up to the Premier League.
“I’m not saying no to a Championship appointment. I’d love to go in as a Premier League manager but the reality is that managers like myself have to take a team from the Championship to become Premier League managers.”
Hughton wants to get back in the game but accepts he may have to take a job at a second-tier club
There is another reason Hughton wants to return to high-level management. There is a subconscious bias in a sport that has too few black managers. If you do not see black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) coaches succeeding then owners are reluctant to take a risk on them.
Hughton played the game in an era when black players, he says, were not considered viable captains. The doubts now are about their managerial capability. Brighton were beaten in the FA Cup semi-final by Manchester City but he accepts that had he been able to hold aloft the trophy, it could have shifted perceptions.
“I am increasingly motivated by being a black manager and the profile that comes with it,” he explains. “I travel on trains and tubes and more and more black people come up to me and say ‘we need you in there’.”
The EFL has introduced a rule that clubs must interview at least one BAME candidate when recruiting a first-team manager — similar to the Rooney Rule in the NFL. Would Hughton turn up to an interview if he thought he was simply fulfilling a quota?
“The answer is yes and no,” he says. “I do believe in a form of Rooney ruling. It’s not ideal but it’s something. The FA now include a BAME coach in each of their teams. That’s a positive. It’s acknowledging more should be done. Some individuals will be interviewed simply because they are black but the alternative is that they don’t get interviewed at all.”
Would he feel patronised or chuffed if an owner told him that he had two excellent candidates and he was picking Hughton in order to make a statement on diversity?
“That’s difficult but I would say certainly I would feel more chuffed because otherwise in five years we could still be waiting for the change to happen,” he says. “It’s almost like the system owes us for so many years of abuse. The game and the stakeholders have a duty to provide something like the Rooney Rule.”
He is, quietly, a political animal. He is still a member of the Labour Party. Its stance on Brexit — he voted Remain — and the controversy over anti-Semitism bother him, but football has been all-consuming and as a consequence, he says: “I’m less enthusiastic about politics.”
The upside of his enforced summer break is that Hughton was able to visit Wimbledon for the first time. “Tennis can teach you about levels,” he says. “I watched [Roger] Federer [against Lloyd Harris] and it was like watching a lesser team in the Premier League facing Liverpool. They start well, score the first goal but then the opposition’s class wears you down. The small proportion inside Centre Court who did not know their tennis would have thought, after Harris won the first set, ‘there’s an upset on here,’ but it was clear class would win through.”
When Hughton next attends an interview and is asked what he would bring to a club, he says he would reply that: “I am ambitious but not motivated by ambition. I’m motivated by doing the job I’ve been asked to do. I have a work ethic — and that doesn’t mean you get success — but I give everything to the job I’m doing.”
The FA Cup run had a negative impact on Brighton’s league performances — they finished a place and two points above the relegation zone — but Hughton does not regret it.
“I would not have changed it because I’d been at the club long enough to know the cup run meant more to the supporters than it meant to me,” he says. “I could hear it and feel it.”
He was proud, at Brighton, of meeting the requirements of promotion and then retaining top-flight status. “I try to be as honest and direct as possible, I’m comfortable with confrontation but don’t look for it,” he says. “I know there are managers who would be more expansive but my style is geared to what I have but also to what I think will give us the best options of an end product.”
He did try to instil a more possession-based style after three narrow wins in October that felt a tad too lucky but the change did not reap goals or chances, which makes it even more surprising that he is one of the more restrained managers when celebrating a goal. “I’m probably thinking too much to celebrate, thinking, ‘hold on, let’s see what happens next’, and I’m not a running down the touchline sort of person anyway. But what I feel is no different to what Jürgen Klopp feels or Ian Holloway feels. Sometimes I go to my office alone, after the game, and punch the sky.”
21st
Brighton’s Championship position when Hughton took charge in December 2014. They finished 20th and 3rd before sealing promotion in 2017
Hughton the pathfinder
Hughton has spent more time in charge of league clubs than any other homegrown black, Asian and ethnic minority manager over the past ten years.
Chris Hughton
8 years, 10 months (Newcastle 1y 7m; Birmingham 1y; Norwich 1y 10m; Brighton 4y 5m)
Chris Powell
5 years, 6 months (Charlton 3y 2m; Huddersfield 1y 2m; Southend 1y 2m)
Keith Curle
5 years, 5 months (Notts Co 1y; Carlisle 3y 8m; Northampton 9m — present job)
Paul Ince
2 years 3 months (MK Dons 10m; Notts Co 6m; Blackpool 11m)
Darren Moore
11 months (West Brom)
Chris Ramsey
9 months (QPR)
Sol Campbell
8 months (Macclesfield – present)
Chris Kiwomya
8 months (Notts Co)
Keith Alexander
7 months (Macclesfield)
Marcus Bignot
5 months (Grimsby)
Terry Connor
5 months (Wolves)
John Barnes
4 months (Tranmere)
