Hughton is facing toughest of tests

Oct 20 2009 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

Chris Hughton has overcome scepticism and suspicion to earn his right to the Newcastle United manager’s job. But the hard work starts here. Mark Douglas reports

CHRIS Hughton is standing on the shoulders of giants as Newcastle United’s manager-in-waiting. It is a position from which too many of his predecessors have suffered a humiliating fall from grace.

Hughton hailed the offer of the Newcastle manager’s job as a “privilege,” but he will accept the role on Thursday with his eyes wide open about the long road ahead.

The 50-year-old has been handed a glorious opportunity he would never have envisaged when he made his typically low-key entrance at St James’s Park 20 months ago – and he is entirely correct that he deserves a shot at finishing the job he started.

Results dictate he should be afforded respect, and the way he has handled himself over the first months of the season has undoubtedly won over a chunk of a United support which had previously viewed him with scepticism. Slicing the “caretaker” tag from the sign on his door changes everything for the Londoner. Following in the footsteps of greats like Sir Bobby Robson, Joe Harvey and Kevin Keegan he assumes a huge weight of history, responsibility and expectation which has proved too much for predecessors with bigger personalities and reputations.

Some would say he is taking sips from a poisoned chalice – and point to the way the Newcastle job has damaged the reputations of Sam Allardyce, Glenn Roeder and Graeme Souness.

The latter has not had a manager’s job since being axed by United, while Roeder’s career has nose-dived since he departed St James’s Park.

It is a job not without risks and the straight-laced Hughton – that most unlikely of gamblers – will be aware he could not have picked a much more difficult club to try and carve out a reputation in football management, or a more trying set of circumstances to work in. Maybe his lower-profile will be to his advantage.