Hughton & Newcastle, An Unfortunate Parting

The sacking of popular manager Chris Hughton by Newcastle United seems to have come as a surprise to many in the footballing community, but should it?

Houghton is a well liked manager that had control of the St. James’ dressing room. He guided the Geordies back to the Premiership after only one season in the Championship. He’s been instrumental in guiding young Andy Carroll to becoming quite a formidable young striker against some of the best defenders in Europe. But, in all honesty he was never going to be a successful Premiership manager at Newcastle.

It has nothing to do with skill, leadership or ability. He has those by the bucketload. What kept Hughton from being successful was simply Mike Ashley.

With all due respect to the Geordie faithful, Ashley is a Championship owner. Newcastle is a Premier League club. Ever since he took over the Tynesiders they have struggled. He hasn’t wanted to spend money, instead opting for the cheapest route possible turn after turn. He openly tried to sell the club two years ago to a very interested buyer and botched it with his adolescent behavior.

When the club was relegated many of the players opted to stick with the club and bring it back to the top flight. Their reward…an owner who looks for any reason to withhold money from them, including bonuses. It’s difficult to keep up player morale when the front office is doing its best to submarine your efforts. Chris Hughton was doing a fairly good job and HIS reward…sacked.

Mike Ashley is doing his best to guide Newcastle United back to the Championship. I hope for their sake a new owner comes along and rescues them from this man. The club and supporters deserve better than that.

FIFA’s Big Announcement! Sort Of

FIFA’s announcement that the 2018 World Cup would be hosted by Russia and the 2022 tournament would be held in Qatar was interesting to say the least. For an organization trying to appear above reproach, to award the biggest event in football to the two groups with the deepest pockets is in my mind…a little sketchy.

I’m not saying that because England didn’t get the ’18 Cup. I’ve voiced my opinion on that already. And given the current state of the Portuguese economy I can see why they didn’t vote to give it to the Spain/Portugal bid (Although I was hoping that they would get it). But, their own report raised some significant questions about the Russian bid as far as facilities, transportation and logistics are concerned. Well I can see why they didn’t worry about those things, it’s not like they’re important to hosting a World Cup or anything. The Russian deputy prime minister Igor Shuvalov says they will make history and one way or another I wouldn’t doubt it.

Then there’s the ’22 WC. In the vernacular of today’s text happy youth…WTF! I can see them beating Japan and South Korea. No offense but they hosted recently and it’s too soon. Beating Australia was a bit surprising to me though. The Aussies did a fantastic job with the Olympics and would have been great hosts. The big shock to me was the fact that the small nation was able to beat the United States to the punch. The U.S. did a good job of hosting the Cup at a time when they didn’t even have a domestic league to speak of. The vast distances between venues couldn’t be an issue (Dasvidaniya mean anything to anyone?). And they couldn’t be concerned about the heat (it’s 54 degrees Celsius  in Qatar! 130 for the Fahrenheit crowd).

Russia and Qatar have something that the other bids all lack right now. Money. And whether it’s being delivered in a briefcase or through back door deals in contracts, money makes FIFA happy.