Chris Hughton sacked!!!!

[Shaggy]

BBC Sport understands that Pardew was in talks with Newcastle about taking over at St James' Park as long as 10 days ago.

It is believed Pardew became close friends with Newcastle owner Mike Ashley and director Derek Llambias when all three were familiar faces at an exclusive London casino where Llambias was managing director.

[dom9]

****ing hell.

[Drago]

So it's not Jol then. Hope the dozy ****s get relegated now & we pick up Carroll on the cheap.

[Arn]

Chris Hughton's end at Newcastle was a tawdry business, you can bet on it
By Martin Samuel

The bookmakers seemed to know before he did. That was the nice thing about the sacking of Chris Hughton at Newcastle United. If you are going to get shafted you may as well be totally, royally shafted; a shafting to tell the grandchildren about, in fact.

If someone is going to do you over, it should be the sort of mugging that makes the 10 o'clock news. And this was a headline-grabbing beauty. Bong! Big freeze continues, thousands left stranded. Bong! Overdraft charges soar to 38 times the Bank of England base rate. Bong! And Newcastle sack the manager who beat Sunderland 5-1.

No, seriously, they do. Honestly, we're not making it up. This happened.

It would be bad enough in isolation, really, but the additional thought that someone, somewhere, perhaps a crony of owner Mike Ashley, made a right few quid out of it as well opens a whole new frontier of abhorrence.

It is the little twist that makes this probably the most tawdry sacking in the history of football; and, as you know, that's a pretty tough field.

Good luck to Hughton if he was the mystery gambler, of course. Good luck if, when they finally got around to telling him the news, he excused himself from the room, shot into the nearest Ladbrokes and stuck his pay-off cheque on his own name as the next Premier League manager to go.

It is unlikely, though, knowing him. Hughton seems a decent sort who would first wish to say goodbye to his players. And as they left the training ground entirely unaware that a new face would be taking them into Saturday's game with Liverpool, one presumes he was as clueless as the rest of us.

The players heard the same way as the public. News filtered through that odds on Hughton's sacking had been slashed overnight. Some bookmakers wiped him from the slate completely, others made him punishing odds on. The sack race is a lucrative market, so any wager that moved it so dramatically would have to be big.

For the innocents among you, this is how the process works. A good friend once had a bet on a horse called Rebecca Sharp, an accumulator which involved two other races. His first horse won, and those winnings then carried over to the next horse, which also won.

Now he had the whole lot going on his third horse, Rebecca Sharp, which was a relative outsider. Because his winnings had accumulated and Rebecca Sharp was a generous price, an initial outlay of $100 had expanded until potentially he stood to collect $26,000 at odds of 33-1.

With an upside of $100 and a downside now measured in tens of thousands, bookmakers get twitchy, and my friend, watching the race on television, took great delight as Rebecca Sharp's odds began tumbling on account of his bet.

His bookmaker, a leading firm, was frantically trying to lay the bet off by backing Rebecca Sharp with rival companies as an insurance policy to cover liability. Then those bookmakers did the same, the sudden activity in the market driving the price down. The story has a happy ending, too: Rebecca Sharp won.

Hughton's journey is more dispiriting but the principle is the same. A bookmaker must have noticed either one big bet, or a flurry of activity, on the Newcastle manager being sacked. He covered his potential losses elsewhere and this started a round of speculation.

William Hill closed the book on Hughton completely on Monday morning, having opened the day at 15-1. Skybet made him 1-2. At a Christmas lunch in London, a guest who is an executive at Ladbrokes said Hughton would be the next manager dismissed, with utter certainty; 10 minutes later the official announcement came.

Nobody will ever know why the news broke as it did, but Ashley moves in a circle that is known to like a bet. If one of his acolytes has profited from this inside knowledge it truly would be the most heinous spectacle: to not just jettison Hughton, but to cream a quick buck off the deed would represent a new low.

Ashley overpaid for the club from the outset and has not appreciated the worth of much since he has been there. He certainly did not appreciate the worth of Hughton, a coach who had done more than his shift at the coal face and who was finally giving Ashley's regime credibility it scarcely deserved.

Born in Stratford, London, Hughton had become the acceptable face of the Cockney mafia, winning the supporters over with some impressive results this season.

Nobody would have predicted in August that Newcastle would defeat Aston Villa 6-0, put five past Sunderland, win at Arsenal and knock Chelsea out of the Carling Cup before drawing with them in the league. Many other results have been patchy, not least the recent run culminating in the 3-1 defeat by West Bromwich Albion, but there is little doubt that with the personnel available Hughton had his Newcastle players punching above their weight.

His parting gift to the club is a young striker, Andy Carroll, with the promise to become an established member of England's squad. Hughton deserved to see that mission through.

It would appear, though, that Ashley was waiting for an excuse to dump him. Many have asked why Hughton was not rewarded with a new contract this season, and now we know. Ashley did not want him there; he thought him inexperienced, perhaps lacking in authority.

This is flawed logic, because how was Hughton supposed to gain respect while being so publicly undermined by his employers? If they did not trust him enough to extend his contract beyond May, why should the players listen to him? It was a miracle that he took the club as far as he did, in the circumstances.

Were Ashley currently locked in a room with Pep Guardiola, this decision might make sense; but the names being linked with Hughton's job - Martin Jol, Alan Pardew - do not seem such a significant upgrade. Jol had a lot more money to spend at Tottenham Hotspur than he will at Newcastle, but could never bloody the nose of the top four, while Pardew is a decent manager who has been around the block with varying degrees of success.

Either man will walk into a dressing-room demoralised by the sudden departure of a popular manager, though, and could find it tough.

One final thought. Hughton was unique to the Premier League as its only black manager. Nobody expects Ashley to act as a social engineer to the detriment of his club, but being the sole employer of a black coach did give Newcastle a certain accord with neutrals.

In a sport with so many black players, the dearth of black managers is a worrying anomaly and Newcastle were the proud exception. More importantly, Hughton was not there as part of some patronising programme of positive discrimination, but because he deserved to be. He did a damn fine job.

Apparently that is not enough any more. What are the odds?


Clicky

[Craig_H]

Reasonable article, but this bit below:

One final thought. Hughton was unique to the Premier League as its only black manager. Nobody expects Ashley to act as a social engineer to the detriment of his club, but being the sole employer of a black coach did give Newcastle a certain accord with neutrals.

In a sport with so many black players, the dearth of black managers is a worrying anomaly and Newcastle were the proud exception.

Makes an issue of Hughton's race - isnt that entire what racism does? Makes an issue out of race, when it is entirely irrelevant?

That Hughton was black, was of no significance to his job, nor to his capability of doing the job. Frankly, in the context of being a football manager, whether someone is white, black, or whatever, is completely unimportant.

Not really sure what caveman Samuel is trying to achieve there.

[Arn]

Reasonable article, but this bit below:



Makes an issue of Hughton's race - isnt that entire what racism does? Makes an issue out of race, when it is entirely irrelevant?

That Hughton was black, was of no significance to his job, nor to his capability of doing the job. Frankly, in the context of being a football manager, whether someone is white, black, or whatever, is completely unimportant.

Not really sure what caveman Samuel is trying to achieve there.

You don't know that. Maybe or maybe not that he is black was one of the reasons that he got the sack. Stranger things have happened than that a manager got the sack just because he is black.

[Craig_H]

If the board/owner felt like that, they wouldnt have given him the job in the first place.

And aside from that, the fact is that his ethnicity has no bearing on his ability to manage a football club.

[Vermilion]

Alan Pardew...really ? Big 'Casino going buddy' of Ashley so one Geordie was saying.

[dww]

Such an odd choice. Although. the 'Ashley is mates with him and likes taking him to a casino' angle somehow makes it all a bit more believable.

[Drago]

I can see the fans turning on Pardew quickly & then the merry round continues. Welcome back newcastle.

[S-RED]

Newcastle fan on another forum saying that Pardew is nailed on to get the job.

It never rains but it pours.....

Still couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of fans

Good shout - the post that is, not the appointment

[Bender]

Alan Pardew is set to be named as the new Newcastle manager within the next 24 hours, BBC Sport understands.

The former Reading, West Ham, Charlton and Southampton boss was among the favourites to take over from Chris Hughton, who was sacked on Monday.

Hughton led Newcastle back into the top flight last season but following his dismissal, the club said it wanted someone "with more experience".
Pardew, 49, has been out of work since being sacked by Southampton in August.
BBC Sport understands that Pardew was in talks with Newcastle about taking over at St James' Park as long as 10 days ago.

It is believed Pardew became close friends with Newcastle owner Mike Ashley and director Derek Llambias when all three were familiar faces at an exclusive London casino where Llambias was managing director.

[spud_gun]

Good shout - the post that is, not the appointment

The Newcastle fan who made the post about Pardew is utterly despondent at the moment.

Almost feel sorry for him.

[-V-]

Its funny because this will get them relegated when they were actually comfortably establishing themselves midtable

[RoadEnd]

Pardew is more experienced at losing and getting relegated.