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Chris Hughton


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8 hours ago, Chappers said:

But how can we be successful with a long-term plan that changes after a few years to accommodate a manager with a totally different strategy? 

Er, Steve Cotterill? Remember him? And he left us about 24 places higher in the pyramid when he was done. Then we reverted to the long-term plan (you know, slow and steady progress).

 

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Where we are probably has more to do with Ashton’s recruitment than LJ’s management IMO.

Yes we’ve consolidated our Championship status so credit to LJ but very doubtful LJ would’ve got City into the Championship in the first place so the greater credit has to be given to Cotts (for me).
 

Cotts with LJs backing- now that would’ve been interesting (though appreciate different model with Ashton in place).

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1 minute ago, ReggyRed said:

LJ has left us in a much better place than Cotts did. 

 I was responding to @Chappers who asked how we could be successful by going away from the long-term plan. I was reminding him that we did this with SC, and it worked rather well (Cotterill took over with us at the foot of L1 - 23rd - and left us near the foot of the Championship, a jump of one whole division, all this in just over two years; in twice that time, more than four years, Lee moved us from 20th to 12th in the same division. When Lee started we were "in a much better place" than when Cotterill began here).

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4 minutes ago, Moments of Pleasure said:

 I was responding to @Chappers who asked how we could be successful by going away from the long-term plan. I was reminding him that we did this with SC, and it worked rather well (Cotterill took over with us at the foot of L1 - 23rd - and left us near the foot of the Championship, a jump of one whole division, all this in just over two years; in twice that time, more than four years, Lee moved us from 20th to 12th in the same division. When Lee started we were "in a much better place" than when Cotterill began here).

Not wanting to defend LJ or rubbish SC, but there needs to be a bit of context.

In league 1 we were a big fish in a small pond and were able to afford probably the best squad in the division and with no need to sell players in order to balance the books.

When LJ took over, in the championship we were relatively small fish in  much bigger pond. Not only were their much bigger clubs but also clubs enjoying parachute payments. As we have improved the squad in order to be more competitive,  those better players come with higher wages and with the tougher ffp regime to contend with, in order to "balance the books" and to avoid falling foul of ffp we have had to sell players as part of the sustainability plan.Despite having to spell some his best players LJ was still able to progress the club - until this last season.

Both SC and LJ have made important contributions to City's "recovery" over the last 6/7 years. It might well be the case that LJ could not have done what SC did in league 1, but equally SC might not have been able to do what LJ has in the championship ( I don't mean the last 12 months of dire football and  going backwards in the last 6 months!). Whoever the new man might be, he could be the one to take us that final step into the premier league, but that won't change the importance of both SC and LJ's contribution.

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3 minutes ago, downendcity said:

Not wanting to defend LJ or rubbish SC, but there needs to be a bit of context.

In league 1 we were a big fish in a small pond and were able to afford probably the best squad in the division and with no need to sell players in order to balance the books.

When LJ took over, in the championship we were relatively small fish in  much bigger pond. Not only were their much bigger clubs but also clubs enjoying parachute payments. As we have improved the squad in order to be more competitive,  those better players come with higher wages and with the tougher ffp regime to contend with, in order to "balance the books" and to avoid falling foul of ffp we have had to sell players as part of the sustainability plan.Despite having to spell some his best players LJ was still able to progress the club - until this last season.

Both SC and LJ have made important contributions to City's "recovery" over the last 6/7 years. It might well be the case that LJ could not have done what SC did in league 1, but equally SC might not have been able to do what LJ has in the championship ( I don't mean the last 12 months of dire football and  going backwards in the last 6 months!). Whoever the new man might be, he could be the one to take us that final step into the premier league, but that won't change the importance of both SC and LJ's contribution.

We have always been a big fish in the third tier but we have not always swept it aside as we did in 2014/15, even when we spend big for that level. We have toiled aimlessly for years at that level. Whatever Cotterill had at that level, he squeezed every last bit of value out of it. 

And still on the theme of fish and ponds, Preston finished 11th in the Championship that first season up (when Cotts made a mess of it, or Cotts and the board), they finished 11th the following season, and 7th the season after that. In other words, putting Lee's efforts into context too. With way more to spend than Preston, Lee struggled to keep up; he did ok, not a great deal more than that, imho. The fish and ponds thing is an excuse for incompetence, I'm afraid. Or, it is certainly leant on far too much by people wanting and needing to excuse poor performance. 

Lee made hard work of it in the Championship. With any luck people will begin to see this over the next couple of seasons. Lansdown expected more/better. That's why he has been bombed out! 

Cotts took over when we had just been relegated; Lee took over when we had just been promoted. We forget now how desperate we were in the autumn of 2013. But yes, I agree, they have both contributed to our progress since relegation in 2013. Cotts - revolution; Lee - evolution. 

 

 

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As a Sussex resident now, and with many friends who are life long Seagulls ST holders, I can say with confidence none of them would have Hughton back in any capacity. Their view was, his negativity sucked the life out of the team, he actually spent a lot of money in his last year, for a Brighton type club, and not much of it was thought good value. As a man he is highly regarded, not do much as a manager.
Let’s find someone, younger, with ambition and without a detailed knowledge of everything which could go wrong.

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4 minutes ago, Fatknacker said:

As a Sussex resident now, and with many friends who are life long Seagulls ST holders, I can say with confidence none of them would have Hughton back in any capacity. Their view was, his negativity sucked the life out of the team, he actually spent a lot of money in his last year, for a Brighton type club, and not much of it was thought good value. As a man he is highly regarded, not do much as a manager.
Let’s find someone, younger, with ambition and without a detailed knowledge of everything which could go wrong.

Ask them where they were before he took over and got them promoted, or have they forgotten that bit? 

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7 minutes ago, Fatknacker said:

As a Sussex resident now, and with many friends who are life long Seagulls ST holders, I can say with confidence none of them would have Hughton back in any capacity. Their view was, his negativity sucked the life out of the team, he actually spent a lot of money in his last year, for a Brighton type club, and not much of it was thought good value. As a man he is highly regarded, not do much as a manager.
Let’s find someone, younger, with ambition and without a detailed knowledge of everything which could go wrong.

The problem is we’ve just sacked “younger with ambition” because they were unable to work out what was going wrong within a few games. Season after season it was taking a dozen games to work out what was going wrong.

You would hope that a been there, seen it and done it coach would take 3-4 games to work things out when they are going wrong......which would have seen us reach the play offs in recent seasons.

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Yes, had conversation along the lines of where were you before...and that’s where you get the comments about what a great guy he is but they were, to a man and woman, absolutely convinced they were down last season before he was replaced.

I’ve never been to the Amex and merely pass on the sentiments of some of those who have.

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Apologies if this has been mentioned previously but the big story here, for me at least, is the influence his public declaration may have on the clubs approach.

For what it's worth, if his interest is genuine and terms can be agreed, I'd appoint him asap. Whilst I believe we are now an attractive proposition for the tier of manager he is, more attractive than plenty will give credit for, we shouldn't lose sight of the fact we've only come close to reaching the top division once in the last 40 odd years. Everyone will have their own opinion, their own preferences in terms of what a manager brings, but whilst we are an attractive proposition we should be clear in the fact that someone with Hughton's credentials declaring an interest is hugely flattering. He has the track record, experience at a higher level, is well thought of, and whilst has faced criticism for his approach in the Premier League it is hard to believe we will find a more well rounded candidate.

Ultimately, I cant see it happening. I'm not sure we'll be able (or willing) to come to terms and I suspect it will be passed off as 'not the right fit' etc, which to be fair may hold some truth. But what him going public has done is ramp up the pressure on the club. If unveiling Ryan Lowe or Michael Flynn was going to be a tough sell before, it's an uphill task now. Even Cook/Robins etc will now, whatever the reality, be perceived as the club settling, lacking ambition.

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7 minutes ago, Northern Red said:

There seems to be a growing belief that, because he's said he's interested, the club should appoint him without delay.

It doesn't work like that.

Standby for a Sky Sports "We understand Chris Hughton is no longer in the running etc etc....."

As you say, just because he is interested "with the right backing ". Ambiguous context there.

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1 hour ago, Fatknacker said:

As a Sussex resident now, and with many friends who are life long Seagulls ST holders, I can say with confidence none of them would have Hughton back in any capacity. Their view was, his negativity sucked the life out of the team, he actually spent a lot of money in his last year, for a Brighton type club, and not much of it was thought good value. As a man he is highly regarded, not do much as a manager.
Let’s find someone, younger, with ambition and without a detailed knowledge of everything which could go wrong.

Just from reading up it seems like the fear of relegation sort of paralysed him into becoming more negative trying to not lose to pick up points rather than continuing with the football that saw them promoted, I’d hope we’d give him licence to play the same brand of football upon promotion should we achieve it and say if we go down then we go down but we don’t want you to change the style. It would suck to be relegated after a season but if we didn’t splooge all our money upon promotion we’d return to the championship a much bigger club in a much better financial position to hopefully maintain play offs and promoted again.

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1 hour ago, Fatknacker said:

As a Sussex resident now, and with many friends who are life long Seagulls ST holders, I can say with confidence none of them would have Hughton back in any capacity. Their view was, his negativity sucked the life out of the team, he actually spent a lot of money in his last year, for a Brighton type club, and not much of it was thought good value. As a man he is highly regarded, not do much as a manager.
Let’s find someone, younger, with ambition and without a detailed knowledge of everything which could go wrong.

That may be their perception and may well have been the case as he was tasked with purely staying in the premier and nothing else so a fairly dull pragmatic approach may have seemed the best option, that’s not to say that he hasn’t learned from that experience and would do things differently in future. You can constantly learn and adapt in football. 

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1 minute ago, hodge said:

Just from reading up it seems like the fear of relegation sort of paralysed him into becoming more negative trying to not lose to pick up points rather than continuing with the football that saw them promoted, I’d hope we’d give him licence to play the same brand of football upon promotion should we achieve it and say if we go down then we go down but we don’t want you to change the style. It would suck to be relegated after a season but if we didn’t splooge all our money upon promotion we’d return to the championship a much bigger club in a much better financial position to hopefully maintain play offs and promoted again.

Plus you'd hope he would have learned from the experience and handled it differently. To stay in the Prem now is difficult, look at Villa this and Fulham last season spent over £100m only to come back down. Be nice to actually be in that situation, rather than failing to make the playoffs every year. 

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1 hour ago, eric04 said:

Ask them where they were before he took over and got them promoted, or have they forgotten that bit? 

Smacks of Charlton Athletic fans and Curbishley, that ended well.

I wonder if they will be entertaining the fans in the Premier League next season....

To be fair all fans are the same and forget where they came from but I remember Brighton ripping us a new one at AG and that was definitely not negative play. His objective was surely to keep them in the top flight, which he did admirably.

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1 minute ago, BrizzleRed said:

Too true

What worries me is why Flynn is even in the betting, as even Newport fans don’t particularly rate him apparently 

Would be a really big let down, but I'm not at all sure that SL is going to do the right thing.

Worrying.

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5 minutes ago, AppyDAZE said:

Just imagining the meltdown on here if SL chooses Flynn over Hughton.

 

 

1 minute ago, BrizzleRed said:

Too true

What worries me is why Flynn is even in the betting, as even Newport fans don’t particularly rate him apparently 

I don't think Flynn is remotely realistic. I just can't see how his CV stacks up for him to be an appropriate appointment in any capacity. 

At least with Ryan Lowe he has a couple of promotions.

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1 hour ago, Fatknacker said:

Yes, had conversation along the lines of where were you before...and that’s where you get the comments about what a great guy he is but they were, to a man and woman, absolutely convinced they were down last season before he was replaced.

I’ve never been to the Amex and merely pass on the sentiments of some of those who have.

Yep my work head office is in Brighton, and speak to many of their fans and season ticket holders and they definitely would never want him back.

im not sure he is the silver bullet many are making him out to be on here, but he does have the promotion on his cv so hard to overlook if he is interested.

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18 minutes ago, hodge said:

Just from reading up it seems like the fear of relegation sort of paralysed him into becoming more negative trying to not lose to pick up points rather than continuing with the football that saw them promoted, I’d hope we’d give him licence to play the same brand of football upon promotion should we achieve it and say if we go down then we go down but we don’t want you to change the style. It would suck to be relegated after a season but if we didn’t splooge all our money upon promotion we’d return to the championship a much bigger club in a much better financial position to hopefully maintain play offs and promoted again.

Or quite simply, like every coach eventually, he ran out of steam. 

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Hiring Flynn would speak volumes about the direction of the club and I as a support would feel more distanced than ever from the club. Anyway, betting odds are pointless and fluctuate constantly, house always wins. Let’s hope SL does appoint an experienced man before we think about getting our panties in a twist.

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1 minute ago, MC RISK77 said:

Yep my work head office is in Brighton, and speak to many of their fans and season ticket holders and they definitely would never want him back.

im not sure he is the silver bullet many are making him out to be on here, but he does have the promotion on his cv so hard to overlook if he is interested.

Every new coach appointment is a gamble whomever we hire we will just have to hope that he is a good fit .

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2 minutes ago, RUSSEL85 said:

Hiring Flynn would speak volumes about the direction of the club and I as a support would feel more distanced than ever from the club. Anyway, betting odds are pointless and fluctuate constantly, house always wins. Let’s hope SL does appoint an experienced man before we think about getting our panties in a twist.

Gregor said in his Q&A that he doesn’t think he’s a candidate. I just think some posh bloke has put a grand on him to go to us

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20 minutes ago, hodge said:

Just from reading up it seems like the fear of relegation sort of paralysed him into becoming more negative trying to not lose to pick up points rather than continuing with the football that saw them promoted, I’d hope we’d give him licence to play the same brand of football upon promotion should we achieve it and say if we go down then we go down but we don’t want you to change the style. It would suck to be relegated after a season but if we didn’t splooge all our money upon promotion we’d return to the championship a much bigger club in a much better financial position to hopefully maintain play offs and promoted again.

Been thinking similar myself. I do wonder though if his remit had changed, i.e keep us up at any cost as opposed to carry on as you were and see where we end up. Hence the more negative football. His teams stats in the Champ tell a different story. He's clearly capable of building strong teams in this league without being deliberately negative. 

Who knows, we may find ourselves in a similar position with him in a couple of years time.

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