THE RISE AND FALL AND RISE OF A NICE GUY

When Brighton and Hove Albion sacked their manager, Chris Hughton, earlier this year, it sent shock waves through soccer supporters who admired the high achieving quiet-spoken man who had steered the club into the Premiership for the first time in its history.
It wasn’t the first time the former Spurs and Republic of Ireland star full back had been treated shabbily by a club he had managed. Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley had done the same to him — treated him shabbily. Don’t just take my word for it.
Alan Shearer admitted that he’d been “dismayed” by Hughton’s sacking. And Alan Sugar (all right, Lord Sugar) said Chris had not been treated fairly by Ashley.
Football management is a hard-nosed business, and club chairmen and owners are no more immune from cynicism and lack of feeling than anyone else. But if you look at Chris Hughton’s record, and bear in mind his essential decency, it’s easy to realise that football management is an uncomfortable place for nice guys.
The first time I met the uniquely nice and very talented Spurs and Republic of Ireland full back Christopher William Gerard Hughton, London-born son of a Ghanaian father and a mother from Limerick, was back in the 1980s. Keith Birkenshaw was manager, and I had spent an entire day with the club’s squad. My meeting with Chris that day was little more than a handshake.
Fast-forward ten years. By then Chris was assistant manager at the club. I had no problem getting his home phone number. I rang him and asked him if he would fly to Galway to open a showcase featuring items of memorabilia from the Republic of Ireland squad that I’d collected.
He readily agreed, and arrived bringing his Euro blazer, and an item from his Milk Cup final appearance for Spurs. He donated both of them to the showcase. It was a most enjoyable occasion and I felt privileged. It was all too short — he had to fly back to London that evening.
Fast-forward again now — 23 years, to January 2019. He was Manager of Brighton and Hove Albion, having led them, as I said above, into the Premier League for the first time in their history.
I had written to him, telling him that, at the age of 74, I had set 4 new world records in January, dribbling two footballs simultaneously (one on each foot). That achievement was a first.
I also sent him pictures of a new volley machine I had designed. A few days later my mobile phone rang, and who was the caller but Chris Hughton!
We chatted for about a quarter of an hour. He said I must have worked extremely hard to set the records, and he thought my volley machine should do very well.
That wasn’t all — he wrote to the Guinness Book of Records people, telling them that my new records were for skills linked with improved performance at every level of football.
That, and what happened subsequently, are a measure of the man. About three months later my wife and I were in England on a visit, and he invited us to a home match against Cardiff City. He pulled out all the stops — special tickets, and a Club Guest media-parking pass.
When Brighton and Hove Albion let him go, we were among the thousands of people who felt saddened, and somewhat angry. I remember thinking, he’s too good a manager and human being to be left long on the shelf.
Which was why were delighted and pleased for him when Nottingham Forest appointed him Manager in October of this year.
You can’t keep a good man down.