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The Great Mass Debater

How popular is Hughton?

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Newcastle fans seem to hold him with some affection (though he did win something for them) and he gained great sympathy nationally for being sacked so ruthlessly on their return to the Premiership. Most fans generally seem to think he is a nice guy, and I think on the whole most Birmingham fans like him. So, the question I have to ask is this: This board is rather unrepresentative I feel. The vast majority of posters on here want him out and dont like him. BUT, if a non-Norwich fan asked you what the Norwich fans thought of Hughton as a whole, what would you say? Regardless of your own feelings towards Hughton, what percentage would you estimate like and support hughton, and what percentage hate his guts? If we hate him, more than love him, why do we seem to feel differently to these other sets of fans?

So... What would you guestimate at the proportions of inners and outers? 50/50? Or is it more clear cut?

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His popularity shouldn''t even be relevant. Its about his ability to do his job, the old "ah but he''s nice" thing is frankly rubbish, nice or not, the board will judge him on his ability to keep Norwich City in this division.Roeder wasn''t popular, but he fulfilled his initial remit to keep us from relegation. Gunny was popular and, ultimately, failed.So any question of popularity really should be taking second place, and I doubt the board will get all misty eyed about making any decisions, just because Hughton is likeable.

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Most would say he''s a nice, likeable guy but not a very good manager. Polls show 80-90% are outers. In reality I suspect its probably about two thirds although within that range you will have some who want him gone tomorrow and others who just think a change is needed or think on balance it would be best if he went.

I suspect if you polled the away fans a greater proportion would be outers than of fans who purely watch us at home.

I think Hughton''s popularity is relevant to a degree because I think his likability and popularity in the media makes the club think twice about sacking him whereas with others they might have done by now.

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couldn''t care less if he''s popular or not, I am a City fan and I want Norwich City to do well, which they aren''t! For the moment he can''t f*[£ off what I''m concerned

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[quote user="Jim Smith"]Most would say he''s a nice, likeable guy but not a very good manager. Polls show 80-90% are outers. In reality I suspect its probably about two thirds although within that range you will have some who want him gone tomorrow and others who just think a change is needed or think on balance it would be best if he went.

I suspect if you polled the away fans a greater proportion would be outers than of fans who purely watch us at home.

I think Hughton''s popularity is relevant to a degree because I think his likability and popularity in the media makes the club think twice about sacking him whereas with others they might have done by now.[/quote]80-90%, really?Can you point me in the direction of these polls please?

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[quote user="morty"][quote user="Jim Smith"]Most would say he''s a nice, likeable guy but not a very good manager. Polls show 80-90% are outers. In reality I suspect its probably about two thirds although within that range you will have some who want him gone tomorrow and others who just think a change is needed or think on balance it would be best if he went.

I suspect if you polled the away fans a greater proportion would be outers than of fans who purely watch us at home.

I think Hughton''s popularity is relevant to a degree because I think his likability and popularity in the media makes the club think twice about sacking him whereas with others they might have done by now.[/quote]80-90%, really?Can you point me in the direction of these polls please?[/quote]

You know full well where the polls were Morty as there was a big thread on it on here to which you were a major contributor.

Pinkun poll and the radio Norfolk text poll.

I accept such samples not fully accurate, those who want him out more likely to vote etc, etc hence my view that in reality the proportion is not that high. That said of the people I know who regularly watch us (prob about 30-40) I can only think of 3 or 4 who I would class as "inners." The vast majority want him out although a few are just in the "would not care if we sacked him" bracket.

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[quote user="Jim Smith"][quote user="morty"][quote user="Jim Smith"]Most would say he''s a nice, likeable guy but not a very good manager. Polls show 80-90% are outers. In reality I suspect its probably about two thirds although within that range you will have some who want him gone tomorrow and others who just think a change is needed or think on balance it would be best if he went.

I suspect if you polled the away fans a greater proportion would be outers than of fans who purely watch us at home.

I think Hughton''s popularity is relevant to a degree because I think his likability and popularity in the media makes the club think twice about sacking him whereas with others they might have done by now.[/quote]80-90%, really?Can you point me in the direction of these polls please?[/quote]

You know full well where the polls were Morty as there was a big thread on it on here to which you were a major contributor.

Pinkun poll and the radio Norfolk text poll.

I accept such samples not fully accurate, those who want him out more likely to vote etc, etc hence my view that in reality the proportion is not that high. That said of the people I know who regularly watch us (prob about 30-40) I can only think of 3 or 4 who I would class as "inners." The vast majority want him out although a few are just in the "would not care if we sacked him" bracket.[/quote]"Not fully accurate" being an understatement.

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morty wrote the following post at 2014-02-14 5:26 AM:

His popularity shouldn''t even be relevant. Its about his ability to do his job, the old "ah but he''s nice" thing is frankly rubbish, nice or not, the board will judge him on his ability to keep Norwich City in this division.

Nail and head Morty, spot on, particularly the last sentence. Our CEO bites better than Norman Hunter ever did!

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I come into contact with a lot of City fans most of whom seem quite forthcoming regarding their views on all things Norwich.

The mood has changed as the season has progressed, now its very rare for someone to support Hughton, we have a few of them on this message board, as a percentage of fans overall must be tiny.

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Morty and others are absolutely right. I cannot care less whether Hughton is popular. It''s totally irrelevant. All I care about is the quality of football his team plays and, ultimately the results. And from where I''m standing, he has failed on both counts. That''s why I say he must not remain as manager of this football club.

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I guess what''s more relevant is how good is he at doing the job he has been employed to do. Plenty of unpopular people are good at their jobs and likewise plenty of popular people are poor at their job.

This again can be argued depending on what spin you put on in. We are still in the premiership and out of the relegation zone. Yay good job!! Or we''ve only won one game in our last 13 matches and are one point of the relegation places. Boo bad job!

To answer the OP''s question, I''m of the opinion that on average Hughton would be considered as popular as it stands at the moment. That''s because he''s not one to put himself in the media spotlight like José or Holloway for example so it''s difficult to form any kind of opinion that may increase or decrease his popularity. For example Hoddle''s popularity went down after his comments about Karma were reported in the media.

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Everyone can agree that he is a very amiable fellow, and in personality I certainly prefer him to one or two managers we have had in the recent past.

Popularity has to be about more than likeability, however, or Bryan Gunn would still be our manager. We need someone who is pleasant, but who is also talented as a manager, with all the abilities needed. (Sir Alec Ferguson is a case, possibly of the other way round - very successful, and admired for his achievements, but not particularly liked in his personality, perhaps.)

So to people here who have doubts about the ability of Hughton and his team, we can still find him likeable as a man, and respect him for his decency. As he is such a pleasant man, I was patient and gave him time to prove himself. It was reluctantly in late autumn that I came to the conclusion that he lacks some of the gifts to be a successful Premiership manager. If he is to be here until the end of the season, as seems now likely, I still hope that he can pull things round, but I have considerable and growing doubts.

So to answer the Mass Debater, I would say that it is not simply a matter of inner or outer, rather there is a whole range of views. There may not be many at each of the extremes, but a large number clustered around the mid-point - call them various degrees of fence-sitter, if you will.

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He''s not very popular on here. Could be something to do with his terrible substitutions, lack of goals, taking up the opposition, negative tactics, and a recent record that would have seen virtually every other board in the PL act by getting rid of him. I know there are the usually apologists who are happy to go down with Captain Hughton, but most have seem him for what he is...out of his depth and unable to change course.

Cue the usual suspects...

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Im surprised at the number of posts refusing to discuss this on the basis of irrelevance. Could I just point out that my post had no agenda regarding the in/out should he stay/go debate. I simply wanted to gague other fans opinions of how Hughton is held by the gestalt that is the Norwich fandom. I am what many would call a plastic, I support from afar and know noone in the real world who supports Norwich. I come on here to discuss Norwich matters as I cant have these discussions any other way. I am of course very aware that an internet forum is not likely to be an accurate representation of Norwich fans views, so I was trying to ascertain what other people, who communicate with Norwich fans other ways, felt about how Hughton is regarded.

 

If you were to ask me, a fan in isolation what the Norwich fans thought of Hughton, I would say 90% of fans hate his guts, as my opinion is coloured purely from what people say on here. But if the general fanbase felt as strong as people on here, I would expect more chanting and protests at the ground etc.

 

I agree that his poularity is irrelevent to the in/out debate, but as I talk with lots of fans of other clubs, it seems to me that most think Hughton is a good bloke. He is probably still well liked amongst other fanbases, as they probably just think of his time at Newcastle. He got a lot of sympathy there when he was sacked. If we sacked him, would the same thing happen. Most other fans probably still know very little about us or how we are playing, so his sacking would I imagine garner symptathy once more.

 

On the matter of why other fans like him, I think this is probably the first job he has had where he has actually been scrutinized. At Newcastle he managed an embarrassment of riches that would probably have promoted themselves due to the vast superiority they had to the rest of the division. At Birmingham, their best players were being sold off around him whilst the club dealt with the financial consequences of relegation, and so expectations of what he would achieve were probably quite low, so Birmingham fans were probably quite willing to accept low expectations, with poor outcomes probably blamed on the board for their actions, rather than the manager. Norwich is probably the first job he has had where his performances are likely to come under scrutiny. I think Newcastle and Birmingham were probably very atypical jobs to take on.

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TGMD- I think Birmingham selling their best players etc would of taken a lot of pressure off him at Brum, also Newcastle improved once he left despite the uproar, they improved even more next season aswell

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You certainly can''t get the true feeling on websites or in newspaper polls.The proportion of City fans who use this message board is tiny and in any case '' inners '' on here are immediately surrounded and shot down by a howling mob of  ''outers ''. I suspect there are more pro-Hughton who use this board than are willing to admit to it. Likewise newspaper polls are flawed as many people don''t use computers and/or can''t be bothered to reply.Probably the only way to get a true answer would be to ask every season ticket holder face-to-face. That''s not going to happen. Judging from talking to people at games I think the majority would favour a change but it''d be a lot closer call than some might think.

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How come noone wants to give an opinion on this one? As an isolated fan, id just like to get a more representative idea of what proportion of fans support hughton and dont support him. All im asking for is some guesstimates at proportions from some well rounded fans with multiple sources from which to gague the level of support he has. Is the fanbase completely against him or not?

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I think he''s a thoroughly decent bloke, which makes all the vitriol aimed at him even more shameful and embarrassing from our fans.

I do also think it''ll soon be time for him to move on, but I try and convey that without making up tiresome childish nicknames and spewing bile.

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I''d say the majority of Norwich fans want rid, so not very popular, but on the whole, most of football likes him and he won''t have a hard time finding another job should he go.

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A team who wants to remain in League 2 maybe seriously if anyone wants him as a manager TAKE A LOOK AT THIS SEASON WITH US AND GET A P.E TEACHER FROM YOUR NEAREST PRIMARY SCHOOL INSTEAD !!! The bloke is a clown (not coco a different one tho)

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[quote user="Hughtons P45.2"]A team who wants to remain in League 2 maybe seriously if anyone wants him as a manager TAKE A LOOK AT THIS SEASON WITH US AND GET A P.E TEACHER FROM YOUR NEAREST PRIMARY SCHOOL INSTEAD !!! The bloke is a clown (not coco a different one tho)[/quote]

Mr Wiz now calls him BOBO sounds much better I think.

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IF Chris Hughton keeps us up this year and then goes on to oversee a period of say, 5 years of stability with no fear of relegation in that time, but guides the club to a series of mid to 8th table finishes, with the odd good cup run thrown in, would people be happy with that or do you want more?

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Wings i''d be very happy with that, but he''s just unable to change his negative tactics and anyone really expecting anymore would be deluded. He''s got plan A or plan A or plan A its tiresome and every team we play must know full well what he''s like so we are weaker with him.

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As a person I like the guy.

As the Norwich Manager I support the guy until such time we are relagated.

He is not given the credit he deserves for what he achieved last year on the smallest budget in the PL..

We are still a bottom six budget so not surprised we are in the mix.

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