Left speechless by Newcastle’s apparently ridiculous decision to sack Chris Hughton

I had written an article about the brilliance of Barcelona and scheduled it to be published today. Just as I did so I heard the news that Newcastle had sacked their manager Chris Hughton.

Ridiculous

This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard in the already crazy world of football management.

Hughton took over the club when they were in absolute turmoil having been relegated from the Premier League. He galvanised the club and the team and led them to promotion back to the Premier League at the first attempt.

I wrote yesterday about how bad Newcastle were at West Brom on Sunday and it is true, they really were poor. However, Hughton has taken the team to eleventh place in the top flight with nineteen points from their first sixteen games. Those games have included a six goal victory over Aston Villa, a win at Arsenal just one month ago and a draw with Chelsea just over a week ago.

Statement

The statement from Newcastle read,

“The board would like to place on record their thanks to Chris for his considerable efforts during the club’s transition from Championship to Premier League club. Chris has shown exceptional character and commitment since being appointed manager in October 2009. The club wishes him well in the future. The task of appointing a new manager now begins. An announcement will be made shortly regarding transitional arrangements pending the appointment of a successor.”

Newcastle are a club that are many people’s second favourite. That stems from the fantastic support they have and from the Keegan days of exciting attacking football.

Soured

Much of the goodwill people feel towards the club has soured over the ‘Ashley years’, although things seemed to have settled down recently. Now, with this awful, inexplicable decision, Newcastle’s board have made themselves look silly again.

I obviously don’t know the ins and outs of life behind the scenes at Newcastle and I don’t know whether the Newcastle fans will be happy or sad to see Hughton go, but I do know that in terms of football, this is an absolute disgrace. It really has left me speechless.

Can anyone give me any reason that will make some sense of what is to all intents and purposes a non-sensical decision?