Hughton battles to keep Blues stars
Thursday 23rd June 2011, 1:30PM BST.
New Birmingham manager Chris Hughton today admitted he was facing a race against time to convince players to stay with Blues.
The former Newcastle boss was unveiled this afternoon at St Andrew’s after signing a one-year rolling contract.
Hughton is charged with getting Blues back into the Premier League after their relegation to the Championship.
However, the 52-year-old has conceded he is facing a huge test to hang onto stars Scott Dann, Roger Johnson and Ben Foster as agents line up moves for their clients during the window.
Dann has been linked with Liverpool, Arsenal and Stoke, while Wolves and Sunderland are chasing Johnson.
Foster is attracting interest from Villa, where new manager and former Blues boss Alex McLeish seeks a replacement for Brad Friedel.
And Hughton said: “I need to speak to the players quickly. I’m only in my first day and there are a lot of issues regarding players who might not want to be here, those who might be here and I need to address those.
“I’ve got to speak to the team and the squad and see if they have got the desire to get promotion, so there are a lot of issues for me to address for me.”
McLeish was told in no uncertain terms – before he stunned football by quitting the club – that the brief next season was promotion or bust.
Hughton, who led Newcastle to the Championship title at the first attempt 14 months ago, admitted he has been given the same ultimatum.
He said: “Yes, it will be a tough ask because of the quality of the division and I want to see a team here challenging.
“Ultimately the aim is to get Birmingham back into the Premier League and the job starts now.”
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These players who got us relegated one way or the other, should stay and reward the fans by trying to get up. If by xmas things are going well then they should stay. They are all under contracts anyway so just can’t up sticks.
If in Jan the team is nowhere near promotion then they can go.
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its not about rewarding the fans, its about fixing their own wrongs…
how many of us mess up at work and then walk away becaus its too difficult to fix?
you earn the money, you take RESPONSIBILITY!
Read more: http://www.expressandstar.com/sport/birmingham-city-fc/2011/06/23/hughton-battles-to-keep-blues-stars/#ixzz1Q6tBCNvz
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with regards to Scott Dann surely he owes us a season having been off all last season while drawing mega wages & not kicking a ball for us nice work if you can get it !!!!!!!!!!
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‘So many managers have to take the blame when a club gets rligated. then the so called star players tend to put in transfer requests instead of showing loyalty to the club and fans. As a wolves fan I felt sorry for the blues and wish you well. I would like to see johnson at the molineux but feel he should stay and help blues get back to the premier league. Good luck.
UTW.
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its not about rewarding the fans, its about fixing their own wrongs…
how many of us mess up at work and then walk away becaus its too difficult to fix?
you earn the money, you take RESPONSIBILITY!
Read more:
Report abuse