was smiling so confidently by the time Newcastle United completed their 5-1 victory in the Tyne-Wear derby on Sunday that you might have been forgiven for assuming he had planned the whole thing instead of being the owner who, in barely three years, has employed five full-time managers, seen four of them leave in unhappy circumstances and left the fifth apparently teetering on the edge of the abyss represented by a contract that runs out at the end of the season. That result at the weekend not only brought joy to the club's supporters but gave Ashley a chance to do, for once, the right thing.
The architect of victory over Sunderland was Chris Hughton, who got used to the managerial merry-go-round during his coaching apprenticeship at Tottenham Hotspur, when he served under 10 different managers between 1993 and 2007. The former Spurs and Republic of Ireland full‑back is unlikely to have arrived at St James' Park in February 2008, four months after getting the sack at White Hart Lane, with many illusions.
Appointed by Dennis Wise, Hughton worked under Kevin Keegan until the start of the following season, at which point he became caretaker manager. It was a role he resumed a few months later when Joe Kinnear suffered a heart problem, and then picked up again after Alan Shearer's three months in charge ended in relegation. His immediate success in the second tier won him the job on a permanent basis, and Newcastle secured promotion within the minimum of drama.
No one imagined that life would be easy on their return to the Premier League, but going into Sunday's derby in ninth place was surely acceptable to the fans of a club whose recent history has hardly been conducive to peace of mind. And yet Hughton took his seat in the dug‑out after a week in which rumours of his dismissal had gathered volume.
The managerial carousel at St James' Park has whizzed round so hectically in recent years that the club's owners might have been forgiven for examining their history and wondering if they might not do better to revert to getting the team picked and run by a selection committee. When that system was in operation, between the founding of the club in 1892 and the arrival in 1930 of the first manager, the committee took the club to four league championships and two FA Cup wins.
None of the 27 men to have taken charge in subsequent years – plus five caretakers – has managed to capture the league title. Even the admirable Joe Harvey, who lasted 13 years in a seat occupied on average for just under 36 months by permanent appointees, could do no better than wins in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, the Anglo-Italian Cup and the Texaco Cup.
As a player, Hughton was a neat, tidy and fuss-free defender who has managed to carry those virtues into his managerial career. He is not a "personality" who can light up a press conference or whose emotional identification with the club is enough to inspire his players. But the experience gained from watching the likes of Keith Burkinshaw, Terry Venables, Gerry Francis, George Graham, Glenn Hoddle and Martin Jol at close quarters is being put to good use, and it was interesting to note the apparent sincerity of the post‑match tribute paid by Kevin Nolan, the club captain, to his manager on Sunday night.
It would be a very great shame indeed if Newcastle's directors did not recognise that, after all their inept fumbling, what they now have on their hands is a proper manager whose maturity is displayed in his astute handling of such wayward but talented characters as Joey Barton and Andy Carroll. While the ambition of Premier League clubs will always lead them to wonder if the grass would be greener under the feet of a leader with, say, a proven Champions League record, Mike Ashley should take advantage of his current stroke of good luck, merited or other
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