Chris Hughton will make squad selection on merit only

Sep 10 2010 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

FEARLESS Chris Hughton insists he won’t have any hesitation about axing some of his Newcastle’s dressing room generals to make way for the club’s crop of international-calibre new boys.

Hughton has difficult selection decisions to make before tomorrow’s clash with Blackpool as former England defender Sol Campbell, France schemer Hatem Ben Arfa and Ivory Coast World Cup midfielder Cheick Tioté are all now available to him.

His instinct this weekend – provided ankle injury victim Andy Carroll comes through training today unscathed – is to retain the same side that has collected four points from their first three games, but he will study the claims of Campbell, Ben Arfa and Tioté carefully before making his decision.

Selecting any of his three new recruits would mean disappointment for the players who have started the games so far but Hughton said he will not respect reputations when it comes to team selection.

The Newcastle manager may not come over as a particularly tough disciplinarian, but he showed in his first season as caretaker boss that he was prepared to take big decisions – dropping an out-of-form and out of sorts Michael Owen for the visit of Arsenal to St James’ Park in March 2009. At the time Owen was skipper of struggling United.

While his trio of new arrivals may have to bide their time on the bench for a while, Hughton says he will not shirk any decision in the future.

“There is no real need to change the team at the moment. We are on the back of what I thought was a good result at Wolves which could have been even better,” Hughton said.

“But what we have is three new players who will come into the squad and of course, give me things to think about.