Hughton “hugely disappointed and surprised” by Brighton sacking

Nine days on from his sacking as Brighton and Hove Albion manager and Chris Hughton has broken his silence via a statement issued by the League Managers Association.

In it, Hughton says he was, “hugely disappointed and surprised by the decision that was made to end my time with Brighton and Hove Albion FC.”

Hughton goes onto say, “I thoroughly enjoyed my four and a half years managing this special football club. I would like to put on record my gratitude to my coaching staff, the players, fans, everyone connected to the club and the wider community of Brighton & Hove and wish them luck for the future.”

Many Albion fans are subsequently asking how he can be disappointed and surprised by events, especially given what has transpired at the Amex since the turn of the year. But he’s entitled to feel that way. And here’s why.

No matter how terrible the second half of the season was, Hughton achieved the aims set of him at the start of the campaign. His remit was survival which he delivered, with the added bonus of a run to the semi finals of the FA Cup.

Of course, that cup run was a huge a red herring given that we had an incredibly easy draw, still required a replay to beat West Bromwich Albion‘s reserves and would have been eliminated by Millwall were it not for one of the most catastrophic goalkeeping errors that you’ll ever see from Lions goalkeeper David Martin.

LMA Chief Executive Richard Bevan conveniently ignores all that though, adding to Hughton’s statement, “This season, he again proved his managerial ability in also leading his team to the Semi-Final of the FA Cup for only the second time in the club’s history.”

But even so, staying in the Premier League was his target and he met it. Most people would feel disappointed to have been relieved of their jobs if they achieved all that had been asked of them.

He’s also entitled to feel surprised. Not because he thought he was beyond the sack – there isn’t a football manager in the country who could win only two games in 18 and not fear that their P45 was incoming – but because the club were seemingly allowing Hughton to get on with preparation for next season.

Gaetan Bong had been given a new contract, Hughton was already talking about what needed to be changed and there wasn’t a hint that Tony Bloom was even considering a change.

With Hughton planning for what he was going to do in 2019-20 to improve on the wretched finish to 2018-19, then it obviously would have been a surprise for him to find out that actually, his services weren’t needed anymore.

One of the stories doing the rounds goes that when Hughton was summoned to the training ground the morning after the 4-1 defeat to Manchester City in the final game of the season, he expected to be talking recruitment with Tony Bloom and Paul Barber. Indeed, he’d been told that was the purpose of the meeting. Instead, he was fired.

If that happens to be the case, then the Albion certainly could have dealt with the situation better, which may also be the source of Hughton’s surprise. We all like to think of the Albion as a club with class and professionalism, but it’s pretty bloody shoddy to treat arguably the greatest manager in the clubs history in such a way. Not since Micky Adams was sacked in Little Chef at Hickstead as he was preparing to get on the team coach to Millwall away has a dismissal been handled so badly (Poyet doesn’t count as he knew he’d been fired before going on television).

Hughton has too much class to ever speak ill against one of his former employers, so we’re unlikely to ever find out the truth of what actually happened; if he didn’t do it when leaving Norwich City in spite of the hatred their fans garnered towards him, then he won’t do it about a club where he enjoyed arguably the must successful years of his managerial career so far and at whom he remains that rarest of breeds – a manager sacked but still pretty much loved by supporters.

With Hughton’s statement, hopefully a line can now been drawn under the whole affair. Let’s see what the future holds for both him and us.