'Honoured' Chris Hughton to be permanent boss

Oct 20 2009 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

“The prospect of keeping this team in the top end of this division with the possibility of promotion – those are the things that excite me very much.

“The results we’ve got over the large majority of the season have been very positive and it is a testament to what we have achieved.

“Any offer to myself is in recognition of the work I have done and that would be my only focus. But I’ve been in the city long enough to recognise what Alan Shearer has done for this club and for this city.”

Although by no means the unanimous choice of the United faithful, he has won over sceptical supporters with the dignity he has shown in trying circumstances and the results achieved in the early weeks of the season. Most will reason that he is far more suitable for the role than Joe Kinnear (below), the other candidate that the club were considering earlier in the summer.

But fans will be anxious that the move to appoint Hughton appears to spell an end to Moat’s hopes of wresting control from the reviled Ashley – who suffered a further dent to his credibility in the wake of the Kevin Keegan tribunal.

He has previously appointed managers only to undermine their leadership and it is now Hughton’s job to thrash out the terms of taking control.

Ashley was quoted over the weekend as saying he would retain the final say over who will arrive and leave the club – although Hughton insists he has been backed by the owner in his forays into the loan market. “Any offer for me to manage the club for me is a positive,” Hughton said. “All the other things around the club, it’s impossible for me to speak about because I haven’t had those discussions.

“I think that until I get into discussions, they are the finer details that are only discussed between the two parties. For me, it’s not about demands and until I get into those discussions there’s a lot of areas I don’t know.”

Hughton feels getting stability over the managerial situation will help the club’s aim of promotion back to the Premier League at the first time of asking.

“What happens every single week is everyone keeps asking when or if are you going to be asked the job,” he added.

“So it will be nice to have that answered.”