Chris Hughton

[MC RISK77]

7 minutes ago, Midred said:

Have the board just found out that Hughton votes Labour!

Oh Christ that would really sum it all up!!

[Red Exile]

11 minutes ago, Lrrr said:

Fan opinion, as said we were 7th and 1 point off the play offs, fans didn't like Johnson's style of play etc and were annoyed about not winning regularly at home given on average 15000 more fans attend home games than away where we were picking up points. But do you really think the club/board cared about the style of football that got us to the play offs as long as it got us there? As we saw as soon as reaching the play offs wasn't possible he was sacked.

He was never going to get us to the play-offs...should have been sacked 2 years ago. But we don't need to argue about that any more. He's gone. Thank goodness. We have a chance to appoint a manager with proven success at this level, not a punt.

However, if Lee Johnson had got us to the play off, and been poached, we'd have needed a contingency plan.

When I was leading a team of creative folk in the media I had a list of possible replacements for every role in my award winning team. I'd expect Mark Ashton to have the same. I'd have been amazed to discover that the chap from Newport or Robbie Fowler was on it.

But as I say, this discussion is inevitably speculation....apart from LJ not being up to getting us to the play offs!

[The Bard]

24 minutes ago, BCFC Richard said:

We were one point outside the playoffs with players who had been out injured or playing through injury all about to come back. 

It doesn't matter.  They should have been thinking " if we do well, brilliant.  If not and our form collapses, we may be in the position of looking for a new manager. Also, the close season was obviously going to be very very short so it would be imperative to be decisive.

The delay tells me they don't want to employ Hughton and are trying to find an alternative they can push past Steve Lansdown.  The reality is some people are doing the groundwork but the final say will be him.

[Southport Red]

26 minutes ago, BRISTOL86 said:

It would surprise me very much to learn that we had absolutely zero preparation or planning in place, and I can’t actually see any evidence of that, beyond the fact that we haven’t appointed someone without interview or due diligence being followed, and supporters taking that to mean we are bumbling around being completely amateur about it.

As I said earlier, over the last few years we’ve managed to keep pretty much all transfer dealings under complete wraps until very close to announcement time, so I highly doubt that Gregor has anywhere near the full facts of the situation, and the same goes for us. 

I can see lots of assumption on this thread and very little actual fact.....

Including yours. That whole post is assumption. 

I see no evidence that the board were prepared for LJs dismissal.  It feels like they fired him then though, what now?

i agree this is assumption, I have zero inside knowledge, however, three weeks on and we are told 7-10 days, you have to concede a month to replace a Manager is unusual in pro football. 

[cheshire_red]

3 minutes ago, Southport Red said:

Including yours. That whole post is assumption. 

I see no evidence that the board were prepared for LJs dismissal.  It feels like they fired him then though, what now?

i agree this is assumption, I have zero inside knowledge, however, three weeks on and we are told 7-10 days, you have to concede a month to replace a Manager is unusual in pro football. 

How professional is the club though, always comes across as lacking, reactive rather than proactive in the majority of areas. Nobody being surprised by all this is a telling indictment. 

[Lez]

If the board miss out on Chris hUghton now then they will have some real explaing to do.

[red panda]

6 minutes ago, Southport Red said:

Including yours. That whole post is assumption. 

I see no evidence that the board were prepared for LJs dismissal.  It feels like they fired him then though, what now?

i agree this is assumption, I have zero inside knowledge, however, three weeks on and we are told 7-10 days, you have to concede a month to replace a Manager is unusual in pro football. 

Equally I see no evidence that the board were not prepared for LJs dismissal.  I don't think a month is unusual to go through a proper process, especially as the season was ending with an unusually intense burst of activity

[Peter O Hanraha-hanrahan]

46 minutes ago, Will b11 said:

Szmodics was on Instagram earlier today yeah 

Ok, wasnt sure if readie meant him or CH, although I doubt too many 60+ blokes are on Instagram thinking about it.

[red panda]

2 minutes ago, Lez said:

If the board miss out on Chris hUghton now then they will have some real explaing to do.

Yes, and if the board detonate a tactical thermonuclear device over the centre of Bristol they will also have some real explaining to do.

 

All ifs.  Why don't you wait and see what happens?

[Red Exile]

I read in David Woods history of our club that Chris Hughton played for Spurs against us in our last home game in the top flight.

Those of us who were there couldn't have imagined that over 40 years later we'd still be waiting for a return.

There would be a beautiful symmetry if he could be the person to lead us back.

[MarcusX]

32 minutes ago, Lrrr said:

Fan opinion, as said we were 7th and 1 point off the play offs, fans didn't like Johnson's style of play etc and were annoyed about not winning regularly at home given on average 15000 more fans attend home games than away where we were picking up points. But do you really think the club/board cared about the style of football that got us to the play offs as long as it got us there? As we saw as soon as reaching the play offs wasn't possible he was sacked.

This makes it too simplistic though. We’d plummeted from being within touching distance of automatic places to fall outside of the playoffs. We were on our way down not up.

That said I was naive enough to hope that 8 games to go and 1 point off wiyh all that preparation and Afobe back fit we’d give it a really good go! I can’t believe we lost 4 in a row.

[Roe]

I don't really trust in any media source but this line is absolutely laughable if even remotely true:

"As reported this week, Hughton is in talks with the club but there are other candidates (one of whom is based overseas while Robbie Fowler is believed to be another, and Dean Holden could well be interviewed too given his fine job in the last weeks of the season too)."

[Northern Red]

11 minutes ago, Lez said:

If the board miss out on Chris hUghton now then they will have some real explaing to do.

No they won't, Londoner.

[Southport Red]

50 minutes ago, BCFC Richard said:

We were one point outside the playoffs with players who had been out injured or playing through injury all about to come back. 

We were on a severe slide. For sure LJ wouldn’t have felt secure just prior to lockdown. The team had been booed in the last two home games prior. 

[archie andrews]

3 minutes ago, Red Exile said:

I read in David Woods history of our club that Chris Hughton played for Spurs against us in our last home game in the top flight.

Those of us who were there couldn't have imagined that over 40 years later we'd still be waiting for return.

There would be a beautiful symmetry if he could be the person to lead us back.

Im still waiting RE..... 

[Monkeh]

2 minutes ago, Roe said:

I don't really trust in any media source but this line is absolutely laughable if even remotely true:

"As reported this week, Hughton is in talks with the club but there are other candidates (one of whom is based overseas while Robbie Fowler is believed to be another, and Dean Holden could well be interviewed too given his fine job in the last weeks of the season too)."

Yea its almost as if he doesnt know anything

[MarcusX]

37 minutes ago, Lrrr said:

Fan opinion, as said we were 7th and 1 point off the play offs, fans didn't like Johnson's style of play etc and were annoyed about not winning regularly at home given on average 15000 more fans attend home games than away where we were picking up points. But do you really think the club/board cared about the style of football that got us to the play offs as long as it got us there? As we saw as soon as reaching the play offs wasn't possible he was sacked.

Edit - duplicate 

[Mr Popodopolous]

1 minute ago, Southport Red said:

We were on a severe slide. For sure LJ wouldn’t have felt secure just prior to lockdown. The team had been booed in the last two home games prior. 

Decent display in a 1-1 with Fulham? Tough crowd!

[BRISTOL86]

23 minutes ago, Southport Red said:

Including yours. That whole post is assumption. 

I see no evidence that the board were prepared for LJs dismissal.  It feels like they fired him then though, what now?

i agree this is assumption, I have zero inside knowledge, however, three weeks on and we are told 7-10 days, you have to concede a month to replace a Manager is unusual in pro football. 

Yes it is, but it’s a far more reasonable assumption than the one that posits that a team of people have been sat around for 3 weeks twiddling their thumbs and wondering whether they should do something....

We clearly had a couple of top targets and began to sound them out immediately, including Hughton, after LJs sacking, judging by the noises in the media. 

I don’t believe for a single minute that Gregor is in receipt of anywhere near the reality of what has or hasn’t happened. 

[marmite]

1 minute ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Decent display in a 1-1 with Fulham? Tough crowd!

Knowledgeable crowd more like it!

[Mr Popodopolous]

9 minutes ago, marmite said:

Knowledgeable crowd more like it!

Reasonable display at home to Fulham in a draw, booing- that was one of the better displays tbh.

[Whale Eye Beef Hooked]

The way I see it is this.   CH was interviewed, he is the stand out choice and both parties want to work together . It is professional to complete all over interviews that have been booked in today.  After that his agent and MA along with lawyers will sort out the finer points of the contract such as salary, loyalty bonuses, promotion bonus, termination pay off, get out of contract clauses/costs etc which will take a while.  Then all signed papers to be checked and signed by the LMA and it will be announced.   Why does everyone start sniping at the club for being unprofessional, dragging their heels etc.  I’d rather the time is taken to get it all right rather than have Watford’s revolving door 

[marmite]

1 minute ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Reasonable display at home to Fulham in a draw, ha- that was one of the better displays tbh.

Papering over the cracks though. Things had been going downhill for a while, especially at home.

[And Its Smith]

25 minutes ago, Lez said:

If the board miss out on Chris hUghton now then they will have some real explaing to do.

Not as much explaining as you have to do 

[Mr Popodopolous]

Just now, marmite said:

Papering over the cracks though. Things had been going downhill for a while, especially at home.

I agree- things had been going downhill for sure and particularly at home- would also add our win over Derby was quite decent too, especially first half but yeah these were isolated bright patches in an increasingly gloomy set of performances.

[Fordy62]

So are we thinking CH looks a lot less likely than 24 hours ago now then?

I thought yesterday’s OSIB was right on the money where they talked about Chaos versus Hughton. I’m more excited at the prospect of Cook or Robins for some reason. 

[S_C]

Funny how people work, interesting to see how the perceived delay of Hughton has been turned on Ashton.

Let's be fair, him getting a bashing is hardly unheard of, but I think it demonstrates the fickle nature of fans who either cant decide who to blame or, perhaps, always need someone to.

I've never quite understood the ire aimed at him. There's various unpleasant words people use to describe him, to be fair they may well be justified, but I really struggle to put my finger on what exactly it is he's done wrong during his time here. As of this moment, it seems, it's that his presence is apparently preventing the arrival of Hughton. Asking him to step aside because the previous head coach didn't achieve his goals seems, however you dress it up, kind of harsh.

It's important to state that id prefer Hughton and co to Ashton and co leading the club, that's more a compliment to the track record and experience Hughton brings than a jab at the latter. However, and whilst I haven't studied the accounts etc in depth to analyse his performance in facets other than the transfer market (though he seems to have done pretty well in maximising fees for outgoings), it continues to surprise me, and again highlights a fanbase which, quite simply, needs something to moan about, that his 'control' on transfers is used as a stick to beat him.

He oversees the clubs transfer policy. So what. To my eye transfers have been pretty impressive during his time, and I Include in that his first (I believe) input with the club which was to put together the squad which Cotterill steamrollered League One with. Please correct me if i'm wrong on that, it just seems very fashionable to praise the plucky and hard done by Steve Cotterill and criticise the evil genius behind the scenes who helped put it all together.

I actually think, if you look at the players we've recruited under him, you can make a case that we've signed above our means. When we signed Kalas I thought wow, what a signing that is. When we signed Dasilva I thought wow, what a signing that is. When we signed.. Palmer, Massengo, Benkovic, Wells, I thought wow, what a signing that is. Again happy to be corrected if wrong but, if it weren't for Arsenal pulling the plug at the last minute, we'd have signed one of the best young strikers in the country in Nketiah. Let's not forget Abraham, of course. The fact I don't think that about, for example, Afobe, illustrates how accustomed we have become to head turning signings. We finished 12th, let's not forget.

Yes, id take Hughton and x over Ashton and, amongst others, Lowe. But I think people get too hung up on this 'control' over transfers business. Unless you think (or can tell me..) that Ashton is literally buying the players he pleases, giving them directions to the training ground with a photo of the gaffer and instructions to introduce themselves on Monday morning, then what's the problem. What the problem isn't, and hasn't been for some time, is the squad. The squad is there. Sure it can and will be tweaked, but transfers are a team effort. If Ashton is at the helm of that, that's fine by me. Wherever we are with Hughton right now, if he didn't think the pieces were largely in place for a promotion challenge he wouldn't be in discussion to come here. Ashton deserves credit for that.

If there's a stumbling block for Hughton over Ashton's position you're presented with a very interesting dilemma. And it's one that i'm convinced would end with Hughton not coming. To blame Ashton for that, even if he is the cause, seems unfair. After all it is largely because of him that he's even considering it in the first place. 

[marmite]

I had a job interview once which I thought went quite well. The company said they had more interviews and would get back to me. I heard nothing for 2 weeks by which time I had applied for and got another Job. When the first company got back to me to offer me the job, they were astounded to hear that i had accepted something else, without waiting for them. This could happen with CH if City drag their heels too much. There will be plenty of managers jobs going whrn the season ends.

[Southport Red]

31 minutes ago, red panda said:

Equally I see no evidence that the board were not prepared for LJs dismissal.  I don't think a month is unusual to go through a proper process, especially as the season was ending with an unusually intense burst of activity

We’ll have to agree to disagree, for obvious reasons neither of us can produce actual evidence to support our positions, we are giving our opinions, the way we see things (that’s what a forum is for after all). It comes down to results. If we end up with CH (or even better), History will judge it as ‘thorough, considered, diligent and professional’. If we end up with a League 2 ‘one for the future’ manager, fans will be entitled to ask how CH was allowed to get away. 

I hope you’re right @red panda

[marmite]

7 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

I agree- things had been going downhill for sure and particularly at home- would also add our win over Derby was quite decent too, especially first half but yeah these were isolated bright patches in an increasingly gloomy set of performances.

That was the problem. we played some good "halves" of matches. I cant remember a good 90 minute performance this season at home under LJ.