Hughton hoping his third stint as manager is brief

Jun 30 2009 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

“But I’m not sure when that will be – I don’t know anymore than anyone at the moment. For all our sakes we hope it is sooner rather than later. Whether it is Alan Shearer or not, whoever comes in needs as much time as possible. It is definitely a case of the sooner, the better – because there is work to be done.”

Hughton doesn’t feel that the lack of a manager will cause too much damage at

this stage, however. The club’s internationals have been given an extra week to recover, so he will be overseeing a threadbare squad for the first few days.

“It won’t harm things too much,” he said. “Certainly in the past during pre-seasons you don’t see too much of the manager during those first few days. He will generally let the coaches take care of things, so in that respect things aren’t too different.

“We will work hard over the rest of the week, put the grounding in there and try to push on towards those first games now.”

While Hughton’s record in charge was poor, there must be sympathy for the unenviable position he was put in by the Mike Ashley and the United board on two occasions last season. Hughton is well-respected in football circles and was only ever meant to be part of the coaching team. Instead, the former Tottenham player was asked to take charge when the club was in serious turmoil and could not turn the tide.

He was eventually relieved of first-team control when Shearer took over, and Hughton says he thoroughly enjoyed his short time working alongside the former United number nine and assistant boss Iain Dowie.

“I really enjoyed working with Alan,” he revealed. “Both him and Iain are very professional people and Alan certainly has an aura about him.”