Houghton’s sacking a shameful moment for football – Part 2
It is strange that Mike Ashley isn’t happy that his team is above the likes of Aston Villa and Everton after 16 games. Ian Holloway has been lauded for the work he has done at Bloomfield Road and has accumulated the same number of points as Houghton, though
from a game less.
Amazingly, Houghton has been under pressure all season and has had to live with that. Yet he managed to put a series of good results together. It seems nothing can please Mike Ashley and I wonder what the targets will be for the new manager.
Like Ian Holloway, Alex McLeish has been praised for the way his team has performed and yet they find themselves a point adrift of Newcastle United. Again, this isn’t good enough for Mike Ashley’s Newcastle United.
Of course, Magpies have been on a bad run of late with 2 points from their last 5 games. And 5 from last 6 which is equivalent to what Chelsea have got from their last 6 matches.
The bad results they have had do not match with bad performances. They took a point of Chelsea during this period but the defeats to Bolton and West Brom on Sunday gave Mike Ashley an absurd excuse to pull the trigger on Houghton.
At the end of the day, Newcastle are a newly promoted side looking to cement their place amongst the country’s elite. However, the good news for Houghton is that he leaves the club without a stain on his reputation. His departure has only put pressure on
Ashley to deliver a top class manager.
The statement issued on Houghton’s departure read, “an individual with more managerial experience is needed to take the club forward”.
Two points have been made here. Firstly, a man with more managerial experience is required; seems like the reason behind the appointment of Alan Shearer (with zero managerial experience) towards the end of 2008/09 season.
Secondly, they want a man who can take the club forward. Well, how about taking a team from the championship to the Premier League in just one season and then sit mid table after almost half the season. This would be considered as ‘taking the club forward’
by any sensible football person.
This is what Houghton did during his 13 months at the helm. Which manager with more managerial experience would like to come to Newcastle and take the club further forward?
Houghton was getting his required experience at Newcastle and was doing the job that he was asked to do. However, not everyone is Mike Ashley’s cup of tea. It works out pretty simple here. If you want a manager who will make the headlines with unique press
conferences and big quotes, than Houghton is not your man. But if you want a modest guy who quietly goes around doing his job, than he is who you want.
One should not sympathise with Houghton because of the fact that he is a Mr. Nice guy, but because of the fact that he has been sacked from the job that he was doing perfectly fine.
There is a good chance that Ashley can pull a big name signing but when you look around there is hardly a name which makes you jump out of your seat. Martin Jol is a favourite along with Martin O’Neill.
Not sure that the latter can cope with the dictatorial nature of Mike Ashley. Then there are the usual suspects such as Alan Curbishley and Alan Pardew. Frank Rijkaard is the only name that might ease some of the pain that is being felt by everyone associated
with Newcastle, apart from Mike Ashley of course.
Houghton, on the other hand, can reflect back on his time in Tyneside and be proud of what he has achieved in his short tenure. He is safe bet to land a decent job as soon as one becomes available.
Meanwhile, Newcastle have given further proof that if there is way towards self destruction and they can find it, then surely they will chose to walk that way.
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