Filed under: Aston Villa, Birmingham, Newcastle, West Brom, Cardiff, Championship, Football
Chris Hughton already has one Championship promotion on his c.v. but he will face an even bigger challenge to repeat the achievement with Birmingham.Hughton is poised to make his return to the front line after beating off competition from Roberto Di Matteo and Gianfranco Zola to be installed as Alex McLeish's successor.
The 52-year-old's appointment is a sensible move by the Birmingham board with his experience of this rollercoaster division, and indeed the fact he guided Newcastle up at the first attempt, a major factor in the decision.
But there will be one crucial difference from his Championship promotion mission in the north-east, and one that will ensure a different proposition at St. Andrew's.
Much-maligned Newcastle chairman Mike Ashley at least got one thing right by refusing to allow key members of the squad to depart following their relegation from the Premier League.
The likes of Andy Carroll, Kevin Nolan, Jose Enrique and Steve Harper all stayed to give Hughton a better crack at delivering the remit of promotion he had been charged with.
At Birmingham, the prospect of a fire sale is nigh on certain. Scott Dann, Roger Johnson, Ben Foster, Craig Gardner, Cameron Jerome and Liam Ridgewell are all expected to leave this summer.
There have even been rumours that Aston Villa's new manager McLeish may attempt to raid his old club for old stager Barry Ferguson.
It means Hughton will be operating with a vastly different team from the one that suffered heartbreak on the final day of last season at White Hart Lane, with the prospect of not too much money being made available to remedy the situation.
As a result of these restrictions, Hughton has a genuine chance to enhance his reputation here should he succeed in relatively difficult circumstances. People are still scratching their heads at his cruel dismissal from Newcastle in December and the general feeling remains that he was harshly done by.
But at Birmingham he has an opportunity to prove that working under the likes of Glenn Hoddle, George Graham, Kevin Keegan and Martin Jol has made him a manager in his own right.
He was certainly meticulous in his interview with the Birmingham board on Friday. He brought a detailed dossier of the Blues squad along with him to the talks and immediately impressed acting chairman Peter Pannu with his studious attention to detail.
West Brom and Cardiff have also interviewed him since his departure from St. James' Park but Hughton did more than enough to convince Pannu that he was the man to take on the job.
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