Brighton & Hove Albion manager Chris Hughton has spoken of his admiration for Reading boss Steve Clarke, as the two prepare to go head-to-head at the Madejski Stadium tomorrow night.
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Both men have a mutual respect for each other, and both spent time learning their trade as coaches before making the step up to managing - and Hughton believes this approach has paid dividends for himself and Clarke.
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Hughton said, “There are some similarities between the two of us with the role Steve had at Chelsea and my job at Tottenham.
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“For me that was the best route and I’ve benefited in my managerial career from the long apprenticeship that I had as a coach, and Steve has as well.
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“He did a wonderful job at West Brom and he’s now got a project at Reading; I’m quite sure he’ll be successful.
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“He’s a good coach and a good manager. He is managing a team in a very tough division with a lot of good clubs in it and I’ve got no doubts that his influence on the team and the club will reap benefits.
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“They have got the possibility of going through to an FA Cup semi-final. I’m sure that if you had told him at the beginning of his role that he would achieve that, then he would have been delighted with that.”
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The pair very nearly became colleagues at Newcastle, when Hughton offered Clarke a role at the club.*
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Hughton added, “I remember speaking to him and at that stage he was quite firm on the aspect that he wanted to manage; similar to myself he had been a coach for quite some time and he had a very successful periods as a coach, but he had made up his mind at that stage he made a decision that he wanted to manage.”
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Now they'll be adversaries as Albion have the chance to move 12 points clear of the bottom three and leapfrog the Royals with a win tomorrow night - but Hughton has warned there is still a long way to go before the side are fully safe from the threat of relegation.
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“It’s such an unpredictable league with regards to results and what we have seen either from ourselves or any of the teams around us, is that any team can put a run of two or three victories together.
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“You look at Leeds and they went on a very good run of winning consecutive games which saw them move well clear of the relegation zone.
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“Any team that can put two or three wins together makes a massive difference, so I’m not really sure how many points we would need and I don’t really think about that.
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“It’s really about trying to get the results that’s going to make life more comfortable for us and get us away from that bottom three.
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“We’ve managed to do that in recent weeks, but you’re always looking over your shoulder because you’re always looking at the other results.
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“It’s my responsibility to make sure we’re in a position perhaps where we can be challenging at a different end to the table as opposed to what we have this season.
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“There’s a lot of work to be done beforehand; first and foremost it has to be about this season and making sure that we end it well, build a platform for next season and then try and put ourselves in a position where we’re competing at the other end of the table; at this moment that’s a way off.”
Original article