There are reports today that Newcastle Manager Kevin Keegan will appoint former Tottenham Hotspur assistant manager Chris Hughton, as his assistant manager at St James’ Park.
Chris Hughton – familiar figure at Spurs
Forest Gate, London born Hughton, who is 49, was assistant manager at Tottenham until last October, when following a 3-1 defeat at Newcastle, manager Martin Jol was sacked and replaced by Juande Ramos.
The news is that he has been brought in to replace Nigel Pearson, who left a couple of weeks ago, and was appointed Southampton manager earlier this week. There are also various members of the back-room staff at Newcastle, that were brought in by Big Sam, leaving – presumably because Kevin will not need their specific skills. So the numbers of back-room staff are probably decreasing.
Hughton joined Tottenham as a coach back in June 1993, initially in charge of the Under-21 team, and then in 1999 took over the Reserve side and then in 2001 became First Team Coach.
He’s served under 10 different managers in his 14 years at the club. They included Ray Clemence, Doug Livermore, Ossie Ardiles, Gerry Francis, Christian Gross, George Graham, Glenn Hoddle, David Pleat, Jacques Santini and Martin Jol. Chris was a well recognized coach on the Spurs sidelines.
Not unlike Nigel Pearson at Newcastle he served as caretaker manager on two separate occasions for Tottenham.
Hughton was a full-back, who began his career at Spurs in 1977 and spent 13 years there playing 297 games and scoring 12 goals. So in all he’s served Tottenham for close to 25 years as a player and coach.
He earned 53 caps for the Republic of Ireland between 1979 and 1993 and after leaving Tottenham, went on to play for West Ham United 33 appearances) and then Brentford (32 appearances).
We don’t think this will have any impact on whether Alan Shearer joins in some capacity in the summer, since Kevin needed another coach to fill in for Nigel, who left the club for pastures anew, and found them quickly on the south coast.
From what we can tell from his record he is a very solid coach with lots of experience and we welcome Chris to the club.
Comments welcome.
NUFC News 24/7 
11 comments so far
Tom4NUFC
Feb 23, 2008 at 10:22 AM
Comment #1Solid appointment.
Paul
Feb 23, 2008 at 10:28 AM
Comment #2Hes spurs thru and thru but seems a decent coach
Cape Toon
Feb 23, 2008 at 10:29 AM
Comment #3Good choice. Also, like the offload poll – only wondering why Carr is not an option?
Callum
Feb 23, 2008 at 10:33 AM
Comment #4Well i think Carr will go anyway, out of contract and no sign hes signing a new one – Yipee!
Edd Case
Feb 23, 2008 at 10:45 AM
Comment #5Good appointment, he wouldn’t have lasted all those years at Spuds if he wasn’t half decent – and I’m sure he’ll give us some scope on Spuds and their players etc – and hopefully he’ll remember why Spuds sold Carr, and make the point to Kev.
hanzemre
Feb 23, 2008 at 10:52 AM
Comment #6more of good (if can the best) coaches soon needed to get us better as a team from time to time. Welcome Chris Hughton! Roll on more Mr. Mort!
Leo*
Feb 23, 2008 at 11:08 AM
Comment #7lets hope he will help sort the shambles of our second half in games out
howway geordies
Feb 23, 2008 at 11:25 AM
Comment #8Seems like a good appointment. Like most of our recent coaches, he was a defender. I hope that he improves defensive organisation and strategies. I hope to see some coaches appointed that are attack-minded.
sparetheman
Feb 23, 2008 at 11:38 AM
Comment #9Hmmm… I’m a bit skeptical about this appointment. Lots of experience, yes, but Tottenham in all the time Houghton was at the club they had defensive problems. It’s only since he’s left they’ve been charging up the table and looked a lot safer at the back. Probably more down to Ramos than anything but still you wouldn’t have thought Houghton will do much to help that aspect of our game, even if he was a defender himself. Tottenham have never been renowed for having the fittest team either. Strange one for me but at least he seems loyal (to Tottenham at least).
AdamCF
Feb 23, 2008 at 11:44 AM
Comment #10Kelmsley connections maybe?
Dragoner
Feb 23, 2008 at 10:06 PM
Comment #11he isn’t a bad assistant manager, we should have hired martin jol instead of kev as those two have worked together in the past and been quite successful.
still, he is only gonna be here until another stupid decision is made and shearer is made manager or assistant manager