Used and abused

Even after some poor performances and results in recent weeks, nobody has suggested or even hinted at Chris Hughton joining the ever growing list of sacked managers at Newcastle. But now, the man who brought us back to the top flight and put millions back onto the price tag of St James' Park has fallen to the Ashley guillotine.

What the hell is Mike "The Manic" Ashley doing? He has certainly alienated himself from the Geordie public never mind the people who support Newcastle United. Now he seems to be alienating himself from football in general. It's about time people understood what we have been going through under this prick. The big sufferers in this are us, the fans and Chris Hughton along with Paul Barron. It's certainly a heavy price to pay for everyone to finally sympathise with us fans rather than blaming us every time something happens at the club.

Hughton was given the task of keeping us in the Premier League this season and has reached a tally that if doubled, would probably see us safe in the top flight next season even though we are just half way through our season now. Hughton was a new, up and coming manager who worked hard, has the total backing of Tyneside and was an asset to the club and fans. But then so was Keegan.


Now he seems to be alienating himself from football in general

Has another manager been lined up? The bookies have stopped taking bets on Alan Pardew? Yes Alan Parwho. Has Hughton lost the dressing room - NO. Had he fallen out with Ashley? We have a squad capable of staying up but also of surrendering. If we don't have a man in charge who commands respect then relegation is now looking us firmly in the eyes. The players all respected Hughton as did the fans and the football community so why the does Ashley continue to make these terrible decisions? Our recent failure to secure points can be linked to a lack of support for Hughton in terms of transfer money. The fact that at least four first team players were out for our last three games does point to a weak squad and no manager can do anything about that if not given funds. We can all rule out the only man in English football capable of turning us round, Martin O'Neil, as he would demand from Ashley what Keegan demanded. Hughton has done a remarkable job under the circumstances.

The only time we have been successful as a club since Ashley took over has been when he did nothing and supported his manager (well apart from that re branding crap). That manager was Chris Hughton and the time was the Championship which Chris won with style and ease. So what exactly did Hughton do wrong? Has Ashley lost confidence in a man who is doing a great job? If we were bottom of the league, three or four points adrift then I think everyone would be sad to see Chris go but would agree. The fact is we sit in 11th on 19 points and have away victories at Everton, West Ham and Arsenal, great home wins against Aston Villa, a draw against the Champions, an away win in the Cup and of course, the one nobody could forget, the 5-1hammering of our local rivals. For that he deserved his contract as this certainly does not translate into failure.

Hughton's signing were good in Tiote and Ben Arfa. He was obviously very unlucky with Ben Arfa's injury by De Jong but the acquisition of Gosling was again good business. Everything Chris has done has been gained him more and more respect from the fans. He has won us over after going through some of the most difficult periods in our recent history, although it's never easy on Tyneside. The poor results we have had have been against teams we would have been looking at for points whilst we have picked up points from those we would have thought impossible so to turn things around (by the way crisis has not been mentioned on Tyneside) means that we have to beat teams like Blackpool and Blackburn when playing home fixtures. That task is much easier than going for the points against the better clubs in the Prem like Everton, Villa and the top four. We have done exceptionally well against all these teams this season bar Man United - even the Man City game at Eastlands should have been ours. Where was Ashley during these games? One can say Hughton has not been given a fair crack at the whip.

So what now then for NUFC and us, the long suffering fans of a club with so much promise? That seams a bit of a joke now with the thought of Alan Parwho coming to St James' Park. As far as Parwho is concerned I would rather have Steve Bruce. Yes, I did say Bruce. Maybe J.Kinnear is coming back, who knows what Ashley is planning. Would it shock you if he did? Would it shock you if O'Neill came? The only possible explanation is someone has been lined up. Martin Jol has just parted company with Ajax and is now being tipped to take over but what sort of experience has he got in the Premiership? Little that's what. He was at Spurs for as long as Chris has been at Newcastle in the Premiership except Chris has been involved with the Premiership ever since it started. I think Martin Jol will replace Hughton and I am not happy with it. What can he do Hughton could not?

picture source http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1263826/Over-Toon-Chris-Hughtons-Newcastle-big-time.html