[Albion] Paul Hayward Article in Telegraph

[LamieRobertson]

Here you go:

Brighton have taken the biggest gamble of Tony Bloom’s ownership by sacking a manager who kept a patchy squad in the Premier League two seasons running. For Swansea’s Graham Potter - the club's No 1 target - recruitment would need to improve sharply for Chris Hughton’s dismissal to have a hope of success.

Not once in 2018-19 were Brighton in the Premier League relegation zone. In December they reached 10th place with a win over Crystal Palace. But an alarming slide of three wins in 23 dropped them to two points above the relegation zone. Brighton’s owner, Bloom, who fired Hughton at the training ground the morning after Manchester City’s title-securing 4-1 win, calculated that it was better to head off the possibility of that slump continuing than deal with the consequences next autumn.

This proactive approach removes Brighton’s best manager of the modern era. Hughton raised them from 17th in the Championship to 15th in the club’s first season in the top tier since 1983, and then kept them up again after a summer of underwhelming buys up front. Florin Andone, Alireza Jahanbakhsh and Jurgen Locadia have added little to Hughton’s strong defensive block of Lewis Dunk and Shane Duffy.

Those Brighton fans meanwhile who blamed the manager for “wasting money” ignored the fact that the club’s recruitment department, not Hughton, determined transfer policy. There is a strong case for saying Hughton has paid the price for mistakes made elsewhere in the club.

Dan Ashworth, the technical director hired amid great fanfare from the Football Association, is said not to have been behind Hughton’s sacking. Bloom made the decision and began informing senior staff on Sunday night. But Ashworth has been leading the search for a replacement, with Potter fitting the bill of a ‘progressive’ British coach who would have looked at home in Ashworth’s FA set-up.

Bloom’s gamble lies in the assumption that Brighton can find better attacking players than they currently have within the club’s spending limits - and in the belief that a shift to a more attacking style will save them from perennial relegation battles. Both theories will be tested once the club has taken a PR hit for dumping a manager of great class and dignity (and one who performed brilliantly to keep them up).

Hughton was a hero of Brighton’s resurrection tale, two decades after they almost went out of business. He was also emblematic of a set of values, rare now in football, and of a smooth working relationship between manager, owner and chief executive. As Paul Barber, who performs the last of those roles, pointed out in Sunday’s match programme: “For perspective, let’s not forget that our club spent almost four decades outside of the top flight before our promotion to the Premier League two years ago, and we have only played six seasons in our entire 118-year history at the highest level.”

Brighton’s line of reasoning is that they had a good manager but wanted better on the pitch. They have convinced themselves that a change will free-up the team to advance beyond pragmatism and play more adventurously. Some season ticket season holders had been grumbling about the lack of entertainment at the Amex Stadium and threatening not to renew. As with all clubs, those commercial tremors were picked up by the board, who ignored four creditable performances in a row, against Wolves, Spurs, Newcastle and Arsenal, to end Hughton’s reign after a predictable last-day home defeat to Man City.

The word around Hughton’s coaching team was that Glenn Murray, Dunk and Duffy were the three players most responsible for keeping Brighton up. None will be glad to see Hughton go. At the same time a summer cull will need to take out players who pursued personal agendas and were not supportive of the manager when results began to crumble. Bloom needs to be as ruthless in the dressing room as he was in the dug-out.

The upshot is that a manager who saved Brighton from dropping into League One has just been fired despite keeping them in the Premier League twice, while never once this season visiting 18th, 19th or 20th positions. Ashworth will need a stellar summer of buying and selling players if Hughton’s replacement is to stand any chance of making it a survival hat-trick.

Most of all the top division has lost a gentleman who helped a club with no top-flight pedigree into the land of milk and money, then kept them there against the odds. His decency is less relevant to this analysis than his competence. Brighton’s next moves had better be good to justify this sacking. It will be hard to shed the sadness one feels at the memory of Hughton on the Brighton pitch on Sunday with his grandchildren.

Nice to have the whole article rather than bits cherry picked by some to suit their own bias
Would just add that it does nothing to lift my general feeling of sadness...football is still an emotional game (and thank goodness for that) despite it being big business

 

[Ⓩ-Ⓐ-Ⓜ-Ⓞ-Ⓡ-Ⓐ]

That article reads like it was written by someone who hasn't watched us play all season.

 

[the right footed denilson]

That article reads like it was written by someone who hasn't watched us play all season.

Totally agree. And he is a supporter apparently?
It's a shit, childish, unhelpful article that should be a post on here not published in a national newspaper.

 

[Bold Seagull]

That article reads like it was written by someone who hasn't watched us play all season.

Well, we're certainly finding out who is open minded or not today.

edit: appropriate the above reply got in before mine.

 

[Ⓩ-Ⓐ-Ⓜ-Ⓞ-Ⓡ-Ⓐ]

Totally agree. And he is a supporter apparently?

I just found this out on the Nick Ames thread also! Unbelievable!

 

[Wozza]

Nice to have the whole article rather than bits cherry picked by some to suit their own bias

Not so helpful for the publisher funding the content, or the chain of staff responsible for metrics. Hey ho.

 

[LamieRobertson]

Not so helpful for the publisher funding the content, or the chain of staff responsible for metrics. Hey ho.

Valid point

 

[Weststander]

Andone is one guy that has looked seriously pissed off recently.

and shockingly lazy. You’d think he was the 35 year old.

 

[zefarelly]

I'm inclined to agree with the breadknife today thanks chaps, we'll be discussing slack arsed lazy band mates and Lambrettas over dinner. ;-)

I called for CH to go last month and think he lost the dressing room a few months ago, but has managed to get us over the line, more by luck than judgement IMO, Whether he got it back again we don't know, but he got enough onside to grind out a few points and it made us safe. Based on that I changed tack and thought he deserved another go, with some serious summer tweaks.

he's been a great club attribute, and a gent with it. Unfortunately that counts for nothing these days, in any walk of life, especially the barbaric world of corporate sport.

TB is a successful gambler, that goes in the lizard and snake oil dept, Not my kind of person . . . . He's taken a punt today . . .time will tell whether we step up or fall down.

CH will be remembered by more people and for longer than anyone else in the last 5 years. Rightly so.

ST's generate F all compared,to PL existence surely? We're just pawns

I hope those players that need culling are gone shortly as well. Bloom is being a dickhead today to my mind, but whilst he's being a dickhead he best do it properly....its only his own money he's going to have to waste to sort this mess out now.....Curious that Hayward thinks the suggestion of people not renewing would affect CH's position, how long is the ST waiting list?

 

[Weststander]

Not sure how to take that tbh.

Definitely Glenn will see the end of the Hughton era as a big threat to his first team place.
Other than that I would guess everyone else is in with as much of a chance of pushing on with the new man as anyone else.

Muzza scored the goals that kept up, twice, fact.

He’ll just keep his head down in training and appreciate any PL appearances. A professional.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Muzza scored the goals that kept up, twice, fact.

He’ll just keep his head down in training and appreciate any PL appearances. A professional.

Agreed!

He will know that it's a big threat though.
Previously that has led to an upturn in form for him. I for one hope he gets the chance.

 

[*Gullsworth*]

If you think about Flozza, Jurgs and Ali J as being attacking players, who have spent months being made 'Hughton ready' by learning to track back, look to make a sidewaus pass, and largely forget about attacking, you might begin to get the sense they might look a bit shit and feel a bit shit. Apologies for aftertiming but I always felt these 3 were good, could be good and should be good....

Agreed Harry, these 3 could be the most vocal dissenters and who could blame them, but and it's a BIG BUT, the midfield must also be blamed for not being good enough (fast enough) to link Hughtons defensive strategy with the said 3 front runners attacking prowess, if it is at all at a Premier league level.....in essence a new manager could come in and not make a jot of difference to this playing staff even with a more attacking approach. We shall see, was a Hughton inner but can't wait to see who we appoint and start the next season with a fresh start. It is however the biggest managerial gamble IMHO in Tony Blooms tenure.

 

[Bladders]

Always amazes me still that everyone thinks CH took over a dogshit club going nowhere , we’d been in the playoffs the previous two seasons as serious contenders , particularly the first under Gus when finishing 3rd .

Poor buying from Burke and Hypias tactics with the players we had took us to the foot of the Championship, but no way was that a relegation squad . CH made us better defensively and we stayed up with ease , then a few additions and finished 3rd on GD difference the following season ,so the bulk of the squad was already there .
I’m not playing down his achievements, but he did not take over at a languishing club like people would have you believe .


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[maltaseagull]

Agreed Harry, these 3 could be the most vocal dissenters and who could blame them, but and it's a BIG BUT, the midfield must also be blamed for not being good enough (fast enough) to link Hughtons defensive strategy with the said 3 front runners attacking prowess, if it is at all at a Premier league level.....in essence a new manager could come in and not make a jot of difference to this playing staff even with a more attacking approach. We shall see, was a Hughton inner but can't wait to see who we appoint and start the next season with a fresh start. It is however the biggest managerial gamble IMHO in Tony Blooms tenure.

Even more than Hyypia?

 

[Horses Arse]

Even more than Hyypia?

The positive I see from this is that it indicates that Bloom has learnt from the Hyppia catastrophe. Not so much the initial hiring of him but the refusal to cull the bloke when it was so bloody obvious that it wouldn't work out.

If this is an indication that he's learnt from that then that is positive. Still feel awful about Hughton getting the boot though - thought he deserved another go. I do have to admit to having my doubts after such an appalling 2019 though. Properly in two minds over this whole thing and left with an overriding feeling of sadness. Glad I'm not in charge.

(When's he going to see the light about Barber though?)

 

[oldboyroy]

I still believe the Newcastle 1St half had a big say in Tony Bloom's decision after such woeful performances against saints cherries and Cardiff getting a point at wolves without having a shot on goal and after players meeting etc. Etc. at home to the toon with a win virtually guarantee staying up and playing so poorly yet 2nd half playing as we can some attacking football meant that some players weren't bothering or certainly not playing for Hughton. We stank the premier league out half the season and that is not what Tony Bloom has invested in. He has provided large transfers compared to your saints cherries Burnley etc.and feels we should be better than we ended up

 

[Weststander]

Agreed!

He will know that it's a big threat though.
Previously that has led to an upturn in form for him. I for one hope he gets the chance.

Going by his laid back, happy in himself, media interviews over the last 21 months, he’ll take it in his stride. In describes every PL appearance as an unexpected bonus after a long career.

 

[*Gullsworth*]

Even more than Hyypia?

Yep I think so.....we are a Premier league Club now. I think the financial loss of relegation from Premier league football would hurt us more than the Hyypia disaster.

 

[Stato]

I got a hint about what Hayward is suggesting from Steve Sidwell's story of starting a Whatsapp group with the core players: https://www.theargus.co.uk/sport/17588251.steve-sidwell-tells-viewers-seagulls-are-united/. He says that there is something to sort out over the summer. What got us to where we are seems to have been a united sense of purpose and it seems that, in one way or another, that may have been fractured. The rebuild is going to be hard.

I can understand and do share a bit of Hayward's annoyance that Chris has not been given credited for the job that he has done in ensuring that this rebuild can be attempted with Premier League money, not Championship, but I think that it's a hard fact that, if Chris had stayed, the change seen as necessary would have been even more difficult. Hayward may be right that Chris is the fall guy for problems that were not of his making, but Bloom has to trust his own decisions about what will move things in the right direction. We have to hope that he has got it right, but I think that we all hope that the decision ends up being the right one for Chris Hughton too. He leaves us with his reputation in tact and will be in demand as a manager. If no promotion hungry Championship side snaps him up over the summer, he will surely be on the list of any Premier League side that starts poorly and needs a pragmatic proven achiever to salvage their top division status. I hope the former, because the latter could make our job next year even harder.

 

[Blue3]

Interesting as I understood at least one of those players was among those pushing for a change of tack. The consensus nationally also seems to be that Hughton is 'paying for the mistakes of others'. And yet, when we were first promoted, I heard that he was zipping all over Europe to look at players because nothing would happen without his say-so. Hard to question Paul Hayward as he's a top journalist and Albion fan so should know....

It's a sad day for sure as Hughton's such an honourable guy, but those who haven't watched the team week in, week out clearly can't see beyond his personality. There's quite a bit of guff being spoken IMO. I'm not convinced myself that it's the right decision - but Tony Bloom's reasons also seem perfectly understandable for anyone who has been following the season closely. The club can't afford to stagnate.

Friends, Brightonans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Ceaser, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interréd with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answer'd it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest—
For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men—
Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
He hath brought many captives home to Rome
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And, sure, he is an honourable man.
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.