[Archived] Keegan Newcastle Manager!

[blue phil]

Hughes is an expert at being diplomatic , never ruling himself entirely in or out of anything , and most of what he says is open to interpretation (unless , of course , you see everything in black and white and hail from Malta ......)

How long he'll remain at Ewood if a big job came up is open to question . I have the gut feeling (nothing more) that he would have gone to Newcastle if asked .

How the Newcastle people must have wished they'd made an approach now ....

.....and how Hughes must thank the heavens that they didn't .

[philipl]

If the right profile job came along, he would move. We all know that.

For all the belly aching that Hughes only said what he did to distance himself from the Newcastle job then kept his mouth shut, he could easily have said a lot more to have indicated he wanted the job couldn't he black and white phil?

But, what is the right profile job? The one thing Hughes is indicating clearly is that he likes the Blackburn set-up except for the lack of transfer cash so he wants Blackburn plus.

Man U - unless RFW specifically annoints him (no sign of that just yet), he is not a shoe in. Queroz from inside plus any other manager anywhere in the world is a candidate whilst he is ahead of, but not alone as an old boy.

Chelsea - a risk if Grant loses his position but I suspect Abramovich would go "big" again; Rijkard perhaps. Besides once Abramovich gets the taste for replacing Managers rapidly, he might not stop and Mourinho did on reflection collect some of the game's biggest a-hole players into one asylum at the Bridge.

Liverpool- Scousers would never accept him and they are an unpleasant lot when crossed. Hick and Gillett might have thick skins and beer retardent suits but would they take the flak to hire in such a relatively unglamorous manager?

Arsenal - no vacancy for at least five years unless Arsene sees his boys being naughty on the pitch and has a fit

Spurs - no vacancy unless they have a highly unlikely Jol-like start to next season

Everton - Moyes is only 44 and has the job for life. Plus does not profile for a very big job so unlikely to leave of his own volition

Villa - O'Neill might conceivably be offered a very big job but unlikely and given past track record would probably turn it down.

Newcastle - Hughes indicated he wanted Blackburn-upon-Tyne and Ashley seems to prefer altogether messier set-ups. Besides, will Shearer not go for it next time?

Mourinho comes back into play this summer of course and in a straight choice against the "special one" not many would take Sparky.

At this point we start to run out of unambiguously "bigger" clubs and if the risk factors are big at those 8, they multiply elsewhere. So he is either going to get offered abroad- Barcelona could do a lot worse than go for Sparky if Rijkaard does go this summer and it is a club he knows,

or a smaller club with a money bags owner. 'Arry is not going to be moving from Pompey any time soon, ditto Keane at Sunderland, Eck at Brum, SGE at Citeh. We could be at risk if Curbishley is moved from West Ham but their purses are closed at the moment or if Gibson removes Southgate from Boro.

At this point, we are looking at Wigan, Fulham, Bolton etc- are they threats? Or into newly funded clubs in the Championsip- Burnley, Leicester, Coventry....

I know it only needs one club to pick Sparky but right now the obvious candidates are thankfully not obvious.

[Grabbi Graeme]

Jeff Stelling has just mentioned on Soccer Saturday that out last 2 wins at Newcastle has preceeded the Newcastle manager leaving the club.

[Anti-Dingle-Brigade]

Keegan out...

[broadsword]

HAHA! Have some of that!

I'm LOVing it!

[thecomebackid]

More woe for Newcastle:

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north-east-...todays-evening-

chronicle/2008/03/01/opening-up-toon-s-books-72703-20545643/

Gotta LOVE that

[Fife Rover]

More woe for Newcastle:

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north-east-...todays-evening-

chronicle/2008/03/01/opening-up-toon-s-books-72703-20545643/

Gotta LOVE that

Oh dear! That link doesn't work.

[brian_gallagher85]

Your link doesn't work CBK, but I really hope it was meant to be this

http://www.blogonthetyne.co.uk/2008/03/ago...e_geordies.html

[thecomebackid]

Your link doesn't work CBK, but I really hope it was meant to be this

http://www.blogonthetyne.co.uk/2008/03/ago...e_geordies.html

No, but hopefully this will work:

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north-east-...72703-20545643/

If not go to evening chronicle & check 'Opening Up Toon's Books'

[philipl]

What a shambles!

If you add back the near £7m the FA paid Newcastle for Owen's wages whilst he was completely crocked, the barcodes' wage bill at £70m was almost exactly double that of the Rovers'.

Of course Newcastle's players are twice as good as the Rovers'.

[thecomebackid]

What a shambles!

If you add back the near £7m the FA paid Newcastle for Owen's wages whilst he was completely crocked, the barcodes' wage bill at £70m was almost exactly double that of the Rovers'.

Of course Newcastle's players are twice as good as the Rovers'.

Add that £7m to the wage bill for this season & BFS's pay-off, along with assorted croneys. Will not have come cheap either.

[brian_gallagher85]

Minus the £40 odd million for not being in the Premier League next season !

[Ewood and I Would]

Have we forgotten the word-for-word interview to the press - rather than to a TV man with a mike and a lot of fanny questions?

The LET carried the proper press conference the next day. It was there for all to see.

To change the stance the manager took and turn it into some managerial triumph is bordering on the ridiculous.

He didn't have a judgement call because he wasn't offered the job.

What he could have said - 'Count me out' would have done - went unsaid.

Many noticed that and drew their own conclusions.

Yep and my conclusion was you can't prove a positive with a negative. It's like when Christians say God must exist because you can't prove that he doesn't, it doesn't work nicko. It wasn't Hughes' responsibility to prove to the press he didn't want it, but for you to prove that he did, which in my eyes didn't happen (unless you believe some of those ever reliable "close sources to Hughes say" type stories that came out).

With your line of thinking you might as well run a story saying David Bentley is gay with no proof other than the fact he hasn't ever said he wasn't. Would you expect David to hold a press conference to defend his hetrosexuality? No, he'd probably just laugh to himself, think it's riduculous and just get on with his job. I honestly believe Hughes couldn't give two Grabbis what the press think or write about him.

Finally, I agree that this wasn't some sort of managerial triumph but only on the basis that Hughes didn't want the job and wasn't offered it. Your assertion is that the Welshman did want the Newcastle hotseat (apt!), so Mike Ashley presumably knew or suspected this but opted for Keegan instead without even speaking to Hughes. That does make it a managerial triumph of sorts, even if it's just a "you should have called me and you might not be in this mess, wink" bragging right.

[nicko]

The manager was asked to end the speculation which he could have done with a simple sentence. 'I don't want the job' would have done.

Let's not kid ourselves otherwise.

It annoyed the hell out of me at the time because silly stories were going around and needed to be killed.

It was a chance to end the 'speculation' in some quarters. And it was a chance missed.

I don't want to bang on about this, but I was there and I know the whole dialogue. It could have been put to bed there and then.

Happy to move on, but when I see history re-written through tinted specs it just riles me.

[Ewood and I Would]

The manager was asked to end the speculation which he could have done with a simple sentence. 'I don't want the job' would have done.

Let's not kid ourselves otherwise.

It annoyed the hell out of me at the time because silly stories were going around and needed to be killed.

It was a chance to end the 'speculation' in some quarters. And it was a chance missed.

I don't want to bang on about this, but I was there and I know the whole dialogue. It could have been put to bed there and then.

Happy to move on, but when I see history re-written through tinted specs it just riles me.

No one is re-writing history here, nicko and it seems you've missed the point entirely.

As I remember it historically Big Sam was sacked and Hughes was linked with Newcastle on no other basis other than he's doing well at little old Blackburn coupled with the stereotype that everyone in football wants to be at a "bigger club". At no point did Hughes come out and say anything to suggest he wanted Newcastle to give him a call; there is a World of difference between McCarthy's antics over Chelsea and Hughes remaining silent over Newcastle. I also remember Hughes being linked with the Spurs and Man City jobs and don't ever remember him ever coming out and ruling himself out.

Did Steve Copell hold a press conference saying he didn't want the Newcastle job? No, so shall we assume he did then? Maybe Fergie fancied it as he didn't race to the press declaring his undying love for Man U when Fat Sam got the elbow. Hughes being linked to the barcodes job was entirely of the press' making and therefore Hughes is under no obligation to answer something he had no part in.

It's not "kidding myself", nicko; it's called having faith in someone and believing someone is innocent until proven guilty. Sparky admitted this week that his actions (or lack of) taught him why the fuzz warn you that staying silent "may harm your defence" but let's not forget that harming a defence and nullifying a defence are two different things.

[tony gale's mic]

Christs sakes, nicko is bang on. Hughes could easily have come out and said "I'm not interested in joining Newcastle" but he never said that when asked repeatedly. Have all of you forgotten that horribly awkward interview after the Bolton (i think) game when he was struggling to get the words out for a response?

It wasn't Hughes' responsibility to prove to the press he didn't want it, but for you to prove that he did, which in my eyes didn't happen (unless you believe some of those ever reliable "close sources to Hughes say" type stories that came out).

That's a load of old cobblers tbh. Unless Hughes came out on record and said 'Yes I want the Newcastle job' the papers literally have no way of proving he wants the job, what do you expect them to do? Get inside his mind somehow? Not sure how reliable the 'close sources to Hughes' were, but theyre the only other way of 'proving' (i put that in inverted commas obviously) a story. On the other hand it was fairly obvious from the various interviews that Hughes was at the very least interested to see what Newcastle had to say.

To be fair on sparky, I believe him when he says he's happy here. But the money thing is an issue and had Ashley come in for him, he would at the very least have wanted to talk to him to see what he had to say and what was being offered. Whether he would have taken it if he had been told about the rubbish that was to go on behind the scenes is another issue, but he definitely had some interest.

[Paul Mellelieu]

Nicko's right.

[philipl]

There's one way to settle this disagreement, let's ask Mark Hughes....

[tony gale's mic]

There's one way to settle this disagreement, let's ask Mark Hughes....

People did, and I'm sure if he could have said 'I'm interested in hearing what Mike Ashley has to say', that's exactly what he would have said.

[Paul Mellelieu]

Which "we" did, and the answer was at best ambiguous.

[tony gale's mic]

At the end of the day I don't think Hughes is looking to leave us in a hurry. We should be thankful for that really, rather than try and kid ourselves that he wasnt interested by the promises of a huge challenge, potential cult status and tens of millions of pounds to spend on new players at Newcastle, however big a risk it might have been.

[broadsword]

It's nothing worth getting worked up about. It's a standard approach, never rule anything out until you've actually had the approach. It doesn't mean he wants to leave, just that he's not burning any bridges.

Let's face it, one day he'll leave ... unless he's going to join the ranks of the undead and carry on at Rovers as a zombie. Which, let's face it, is unlikely. There's just no point in worrying about it, and trying to portray the manager's attitude as not wanting to leave the club except in his casket.

We've been very lucky to have him.

[tony gale's mic]

It's nothing worth getting worked up about. It's a standard approach, never rule anything out until you've actually had the approach. It doesn't mean he wants to leave, just that he's not burning any bridges.

Let's face it, one day he'll leave ... unless he's going to join the ranks of the undead and carry on at Rovers as a zombie. Which, let's face it, is unlikely. There's just no point in worrying about it, and trying to portray the manager's attitude as not wanting to leave the club except in his casket.

We've been very lucky to have him.

Well I'd disagree with the 'standard approach' thing, every time a reasonably high profile job comes up you have a few people completely ruling themselves out of the running. Sparky was interested, but it doesn't mean he's desperate to leave. I do agree with the rest of your post though.

[Ewood and I Would]

I'm sad that so many of you have so little faith in Hughes that you assume he wanted the Newcastle job just because he refused to say that he didn't. Must be the guilty until proven innocent culture we live in nowadays....

I actually agree with Bryan to be honest but I'm against any notion that Hughes was set to leave us for Newcastle with the "proof" that's available at the moment.

tony gale's mic who are these managers ruling themselves out everytime a job comes up? As I remember the only person who offically ruled themselves out of the Newcastle job was Harry Redknapp and that only after he'd been offered it.

[philipl]

Which "we" did, and the answer was at best ambiguous.

ambiguously no - perhaps.

yes - never remotelycrossed his lips.

unambiguously critical of the guy who makes the decisions about the Newcastle job - undoubtedly,