Chris Hughton has been the Brighton and Hove Albion boss for two years, and previously managed Newcastle United, Birmingham City and Norwich City.
Chris Hughton has now been in management for 7 years. In that time he has won the Championship with the second highest points total in history, taken Newcastle to 11th in the Premier League (at the time of his dismissal), stabilised Birmingham, qualifying for the group stages of the Europa League and the Championship play-off’s, finished 11th in the Premier League with Norwich and came within inches of guiding an un-fancied Brighton team to promotion to the Premier League.
Now that is a slightly selective recollection of Hughton’s managerial career to date, but genuinely only slightly. The former Tottenham full-back has only really struggled at Norwich in 2013/14, with a squad that was always going to be in a relegation scrap. And even then Hughton was dismissed with the team in 17th, and the Canaries went on to finish in 18th.
In truth, Hughton has a virtually unblemished record. He has done a fair to excellent job at all four of his previous (and current) clubs. Yet pundits and commentators are rarely heard waxing lyrical about the 57-year-old. When recent vacancies opened up at Premier League clubs such as Swansea, Sunderland, Hull, Aston Villa, Leicester, Crystal Palace and a number of other clubs, Hughton is not only overlooked, his name is never even mentioned.
Brighton manager Chris Hughton
That is not to say any of those clubs should have appointed Hughton. One could hardly question Leicester’s decision to appoint Claudio Ranieri in the summer of 2015 with hindsight, but the fact Hughton isn’t even put forward for these jobs in press speculation suggests that he is not as highly-regarded within the world of football as his record suggests he ought to be.
In his first season in permanent management, Hughton won the Championship title at Newcastle with a record of 30 wins, 12 draws and just 4 defeats. Rafa Benitez’s Magpies side have already lost 3 games this season, with what must be described as a far stronger squad than the one Hughton had at his disposal.
Whilst the Newcastle squad of 2009/10 was a strong one for the Championship, it was blessed with more grafters than wonderfully gifted footballers. There was also a rather toxic atmosphere at St James’ Park when Hughton took the reigns.
To achieve the second highest points tally in Championship history under those circumstances is a record which is not to be sniffed at. If Rafa Benitez were to end this season with 102 points to Newcastle’s name, he would be a very, very happy man.
Rafa Benitez would love to emulate Chris Hughton’s first season at Newcastle
It is also worth remembering that when Hughton was dismissed as the Newcastle United manager, it was a decision which was unanimously condemned by the footballing community. Everyone from pundits to his players voiced their dismay at the sacking, and had Hughton waited around a little longer at that stage, he most likely could have walked into a Premier League job.
He didn’t take such an easy decision though, instead joining Birmingham City. The atmosphere at Newcastle may have been bad when Hughton was appointed, but it was even worse at Birmingham. Following relegation from the Premier League, Alex McLeish controversially resigned and joined Second City rivals Aston Villa, whilst club president Carson Yeung was arrested for money laundering in Hong Kong the following week.
That left the Blues in serious financial troubles, during the season in which FFP regulations were introduced. Hughton had to sell first team players such as Craig Gardner, Roger Johnson, Barry Ferguson, Michel, Scott Dann, Cameron Jerome, Jean Beausejour and Liam Ridgwell, whilst he brought in 9 players on free transfers and a further 6 on-loan throughout the course of the season.
Chris Hughton had to sell Scott Dann at Birmingham City
Hughton had to recruit extensively, despite a severe lack of funds, due to Birmingham competing in 4 competitions that season. By the end of the season Birmingham had played an incredible 62 games, at least 10 more than the majority of their Championship rivals. That is the same number of games as Barcelona played last season.
So the former Ireland international took over a club which had been forced to sell a number of its most prized assets, recruit heavily on a shoe-string budget and slog it out in an incredibly competitive Championship with the most congested fixture list in the divisions history, all faced with a backdrop of uncertainty and anger regarding the club’s hierarchy.
Under those circumstances, Hughton’s team came within one point of the Europa League knockout stages and finished 4th in the Championship, thus qualifying for the play-offs. Had the Blues not had to contend with such a vast amount of games, it is quite possible they would have succeeded in the play-off’s. It is testament to the fine job Hughton did that Birmingham could only finish 12th in the Championship the following season, when they played a whopping 16 fewer games.
Hughton’s next job was at Norwich City
After just a single season at Birmingham City, and with St Andrews having become a real circus, Hughton understandably jumped at the opportunity to move on, especially when he was offered a job in the Premier League. Hughton inherited a Norwich City team which had just had a very solid debut season in the top flight.
Having finished 12th under Paul Lambert, Hughton went one better, finishing in 11th place in his first season. It was possibly that achievement which increased the weight of expectation on the London-born boss the following season, as he was dismissed with the team in 17th and the Canaries went on to be relegated from the Premier League without him, finishing 18th.
The 57-year-old’s next job was his current one, at Brighton & Hove Albion. In many respects, the perfect job for an excellent manager with a very good track record in the Championship, taking control of a team with the facilities and infrastructure in place to grow and succeed, yet having very reasonable pressures and expectations, unlike a couple of his previous employers.
Hughton took charge of Brighton in December 2014
Hughton arrived at the Amex in December 2014, following Sami Hyypia’s resignation. The former Liverpool defender left the Seagulls languishing in the relegation zone, having won only 1 of their last 18 games. Hughton won 6 of his first 15 games in charge at Brighton, climbing to safety and finishing the season in 20th.
Ahead of his first full season on the south coast, even the most optimistic Brighton fan was probably hoping for a comfortable mid-table finish with clear signs of progress. Hughton delivered much, much more than that though. The likes of Bobby Zamora, Liam Rosenior and Tomer Hemed were recruited in the summer, joined most notably by Anthony Knockaert in the January transfer window.
By mid-December, Brighton still hadn’t lost a game, and were shocking the entire division with their consistency and resilience. More expensively assembled squads with much larger wage budgets such as Middlesbrough, Derby, Hull and Burnley waited and waited for Chris Hughton’s men to fall away, but they never did.
Anthony Knockaert was a great signing for Chris Hughton
Unbeaten in their last 14 games, Brighton headed to Middlesbrough on the final day knowing a win would secure automatic promotion. Unfortunately for Hughton, Dale Stephens’ 59th minute red card made that virtually impossible, and a 1-1 draw saw them 3rd and and head into the play-off’s.
Particularly painfully for the Seagulls, they were knocked out by Sheffield Wednesday, who had finished 15 points below them. Brighton and Hughton didn’t beat themselves up though. They recruited well once again, and despite the likes of Newcastle and Aston Villa dropping down to the Championship, Brighton look incredibly competitive once more.
Their most recent victory was their most impressive, a 5-0 demolition of Hughton’s former club Norwich City, which put them in the automatic promotion places, 3 points clear of out-of-sorts Huddersfield Town. Their goal difference also speaks volumes of the way in which they’ve won and lost games, with only Newcastle having a superior goal difference than the Seagulls +14 after 15 games.
Glenn Murray scored a hat-trick for Brighton vs Norwich
Given their experience of coming so close last season, and their consistency for more than 15 months now, it would take a brave man to bet against Brighton lasting the course once again this season. Taking the Seagulls from the relegation zone to the Premier League in just 2 and a half years would be the crowning on an already highly impressive early managerial career.
One must ask then, why is Chris Hughton not more highly regarded within the world of football? Gareth Southgate is now the heavy favourite to be appointed the next England manager, with a record of relegating Middlesbrough and finishing bottom of his group with a very talented England under-21’s squad.
Yet again, one is not suggesting Chris Hughton ought to get the England job, but he clearly has more impressive credentials than that of Gareth Southgate, as well as a handful of Premier League bosses. Perhaps Brighton is the best gig for Hughton though, for now at least, a club where he is throughly appreciated and has a fantastic chance of being a Premier League manager next season.
Do you think Chris Hughton is underrated as a manager?
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
