Chris, Consistency & Captains

[JBizzle]

Lots of respect and appreciation for Chris Hughton on here - all of which I fully endorse, but it seems that some haven't yet got enough respect to spell his name properly. Strange.

(It wasn't be) but as a point of interest my phone auto-corrects "Hughton" to "Houghton" quite annoying as I have literally never written Houghton (other than right now)

 

[Super Steve Earle]

I think he's done a great job, and I love the way he speaks in interviews and press conferences, and understands the game, the opposition and how to set the team up. I'm a big fan of him, and think that the summer and next season will be bright (can't be a lot darker than the autumn months.

However, there is one slightly nagging feeling I have: Fair enough give CH the plaudits for Kayal, but what is/was the point of bringing Ledesma in?

I genuinely think Hughton has been taken a little by surprise by the successful conversion of Calde to Mr Undroppable on the right, which is where Ledesma would have come in.

 

[NooBHA]

After we got lucky - insofar as we made the playoffs - with Oscar, I get the impression that it was sort of assumed by them upstairs at the club that a knowledge of this division was relatively unimportant. Fortunately we now have a manager who corrects that error.

The key to me, though, will be how CH works with the new recruitment team. That has been the sticking point with previous managers. The Kayal signing is a very promising sign, but, as has been said, there's plenty more work to do in summer.

I don't actually think we can gage future signings with Kayal

The reason i say that is because although he has been a TREMENDOUS acquisition. He was NOT A COSTLY acquisition. That means that we cannot assume that the Board will sanction BIG SPENDING.

I have a feeling that we will be spending and bringing in new players but I don't think we will be breaking the bank so our scouting system needs to be on top of its game between now and the start of next season to try and find good players who are not overpriced. If we can do that and get challenging for play offs next year then I think the Board would make a big push in january transfer window to try and get us up to the Premiership.

We have the manager who can get us up but we don't want to be reckless with spending. It has to be a two or 3 year plan and done within constraints. I have every faith that CH will get us promoted but I want it to be done without overspending. The spending can be done a bit at a time and i would be happy with that. Perhaps have one reasonably succesful season next year with the big push the following year.

Promotion next year would be a bonus but I don't want to be greedy

 

[Steve in Japan]

I would echo the comments about his post match analysis. Always worth listening to. It seems to me that win, lose or draw, you get a fairly unvarnished assessment. He's not emotional or disrespectful, but he certainly seems to say what he thinks. And he seems genuinely grateful for the support (although I am sure he's been around long enough to know it doesn't hurt to butter us up a bit).

 

[Seagull73]

I also don't think we should underestimate the role of the Assistant Manager either.
Having a former Full-Back and Centre-Half as Manager and Assistant should, by design, make us harder to beat. CH clearly knows how to play at home, the results against some of the top teams bear that out - his challenge will be to turn that into away results, but all in good time.
If somebody had said at the beginning of January that we would be 9 points clear of 22nd by the beginning of March, I don't think anybody (including me) would have believed you.
It's a very promising start for sure.

 

[Stumpy Tim]

Agreed but I would also say we need a CB with pace and 2 full backs (unless we keep Bennett)

Bruno has another year & I'm sure Calde will get one too. Can't see us getting another right back. Would be nice to buy a permanent left back, and Bennett would be good enough in my opinion

 

[Stat Brother]

My one massive reservation about Chris is highlighted in the season ticket 'together' note.

The fella looks freakazoid odd when smiling.