Ashley sacks Chris Hughton

“The club wishes him [Chris Hughton] well for the future.

“Regrettably the board now feels that an individual with more managerial experience is needed to take the club forward.”

After taking charge of a team scarred by the train-wreck of a relegation season, getting them back up in style and consolidating on that season by providing fans with a solid, if inconsistent, start back to life in the Premier League, Chris Hughton now find's his name added to the managerial casualty list adorned above the managers dugout at St James’ Park.

On that list he sits amongst the likes of Sir Bobby Robson, Sam Allardyce, Glenn Roeder and more recently Alan Shearer.

He will always be thought of fondly by the toon army, especially after the hammering of Sunderland and the great away win at Arsenal this season.

The bookies would probably argue he lasted longer than expected, but a club which has skirted turmoil religiously over the past 5 years, seemed to have finally found a calming influence. Yes, he was inexperienced within the managerial game. Yes he was quiet, reserved and collected, but Hughton brought these qualities to the dugout selflessly.

And they were just what Newcastle United and the fans needed after the turmoil of relegation.

A former coach at Tottenham Hotspur, he is a man who never once complained publicly about the fact he was poorly paid by Mike Ashley or that he wasn’t given a lavish war chest to spend in the transfer window.

In fact he was shoved to one side increasingly in the build up to his sacking. He needed a new number two. He wasn’t given one. He required a contract extension. He was fobbed off.

But, he got the team playing for each other again. Jonas Gutierrez even remarked publicly he preferred playing for Hughton than Diego Maradona. Other than punching Gamst-Pederson, Joey Barton looked a reformed man, with Hughton the first manager to get the best out of him since his £5.8 million transfer from Manchester City in June 2007.

Kevin Nolan, his captain, is in great goal-scoring form, as is Andy Carroll – two players who’ve thrived under Hughton’s management.

It has emerged that Chris took training on Monday as normal, before being summoned to St James’ Park to receive the news that his services were no longer required. A testament to his qualities as a manager, that when he bumped into Kevin Nolan and Joey Barton in reception – rather than rant about what had just happened – he simply told them to carry on playing, and to make sure they did themselves proud by having a good season.

He even stood talking to a few fans who were milling around the ground, regardless of the fact that his car was waiting or that there was a pack of photographers snapping away.

It was always going to be an uphill struggle for Hughton. He was a manager who fans had been sceptical of at the start of his reign, but as he stepped outside the Gallowgate end on Monday to climb into the car that would take him away from St James’ Park for the last time, everybody in the North East watched on heavy-hearted.

The actions of Mike Ashley this week suggest he and Llambias have been waiting for the right moment to replace Chris, giving chaos the nod to rear its ugly head again at St James’ Park.

Everybody liked him. The players loved him, the fans respected his results and the media appreciated his straight up style. He was laying the foundations for the next few seasons.

As his car drove off, fans would be forgiven for wondering if Newcastle’s new found calm was sat next to Hughton in the backseat. And as Hughton disappeared out of view up Barrack Road, they remained, stood in the shadow of St James’ Park, completely unsure as to who would be the man to carry on the building job started off by Chris Hughton.

Mel comes back in from the Edge...of Darkness

Dark. Gritty. Foreboding. Or certainly what Warner Bros’ Edge of Darkness was intended to be. To say it isn’t all three of those is both unfair and does a disservice to director Martin Campbell – who yet again delivers a film that is driven not only by action, but by raw emotions too.

Starring Mel Gibson (Mad Max, Lethal Weapon, What Women Want) and Ray Winstone (Sexy Beast, 44 inch chest, The Departed) Edge of Darkness tells the story of Boston detective Thomas Craven who, having just welcomed his estranged daughter back into his home, sees her gunned down in mysterious circumstances.

Everybody, the Boston PD included, assume that the bullet was meant for him. Seems like a pretty open and shut case doesn’t it? Find the shooter and make him pay? Pretty much, except Craven’s daughter was having nose-bleeds and vomiting violently up until she died and upon investigation, Craven finds a gun amongst his daughters belongings. Now there really is a mystery to solve…






Edge of Darkness was never designed by Martin Campbell to redesign the thriller genre. It knows its limitations and sticks within its limits. Yes, it may not be as gritty as the trailer above makes it out to be. And yet for all it does indeed have limitations, it also has masses of strengths, one being the terrific chemistry between Gibson and Winstone. They have very little time together on screen, but when they do, you know it.

Simple scenes, not particularly full of tension, yet you simply cannot take your eyes off their pair. Their dialogue is perfect and makes it feel as if they’re playing an intricate game of cat and mouse – one wrong word and the guns will be out – even though they’re discussing very ordinary things such as whiskey and children.

It also has to be said that Warner Bros’ made the perfect decision to give the directorial hot-seat to Martin Campbell (of Casino Royale fame). He is a man that knows just how to manage emotion, blend it with action, and yet still retain sentiment that carries throughout the entire film. It is all about Craven’s love for his daughter and there can be no more powerful an emotion than the love between a parent and child and this is what the audience is privy to, albeit in between a gun fight and a tense scene or two.

Edge of Darkness doesn’t offer anything groundbreaking and at times the dialogue and script are pretty simplistic. “Everything is illegal in Massachusetts,” is a line spoken too often, but it can easily be overlooked as there is plenty of other great dialogue (especially from Winstone) to keep the audience interested. It should also be noted that if you think this film will be like Liam Neeson’s Taken and offer wall to wall violence, then you are very much mistaken.

It is about a corporate conspiracy that an ordinary, grieving father (albeit a detective – they can never just be a plumber or a salesman can they?) sets out to try and break in order to get some justice for his daughter. Like most movie conspiracies, this one does indeed go all the way to the top.

The film itself is not too long, its engaging and will keep you watching throughout. There are some fantastic fight scenes in it, some great camera work and a fantastic score that even Hanz Zimmer would be proud of.

It was nice too to see Mel Gibson back doing what he does best. Acting. Yes he’s made some awful mistakes in the past and some of you may not like him or his choice of movies over the years, but I would advise you to put that aside and give this film a watch. It wont redefine cinema, if you don’t particularly like Gibson then it probably wont sway you opinion of him.

But you know what? It may just entertain you.

Behind the scenes of SoccerAM LIVE 1

The day of my first live show. I made sure I got up for 5.45am, so that’d I’d be into the SoccerAm studios for 7am and so that I could help move the props onto the set, as well as greeting the ‘fans’ when they eventually arrived.

By fans, I mean the eight supporters that sit in the ‘Luther Blissett Stand’ each week. I wasn’t sure what the team was that week, and as they appeared at the main gate, my heart pounded a little bit. I could make out lots of red and white stripes on their kits.

Oh god, Sunderland fans!

Terrific, just what I need being a Newcastle fan. All the comments from them and I’d have to look after them and see to their needs throughout the entire show. Just fantastic…

Then I spotted my saving grace. The kit sponsor was FlyBe.com, not a gambling one, which meant instead of greeting awful Sunderland fans, I was collecting nice calm and well mannered Southampton fans.

What a relief that was! Well they weren’t calm for one thing. They’d been out on the drink the night before in central London and some of them admitted they were still “absolutely mullered” when I walked them back through the lot and into the studio.

I had to take a few of them to the toilet later on during one of the various ad-breaks and the smell that some of them were making would have made anyone’s eyes water.

Anyway we got them into position and then I made one of my many tea-runs of the morning, taking hot refreshments back to the green room for the ‘celebrity guests’.

This week we had David Haye (when he eventually could be bothered to turn up), Craig David and The Mclean brothers (one is a singer and the other is a striker for Peterbrough Football Club).

I had to get drinks for all of them and both Craig David and The McLean’s were fantastic.

This may come as a surprise to some of you, but David Haye on the other hand was downright rude.

I asked him what I could get him to drunk and he tutted at me, didn’t look at me and just shrugged and said: “water, yeah?” No please, thank you or anything.

Then, one of his entourage (and there were about eight of them) shouted at me: “Oi, you fucking cunt, go and get me a cooked breakfast. Now!”

As a geordie boy, I’d heard the rumour that people down south were occasionally a bit rude, but this guy was taking the biscuit – literally!

I didn’t know what to do, should I have told him to fuck off?! I didn’t, instead I went up to the canteen and attempted to get the man the fry up he was obviously in such desperate need of – given that he was at least 16 stone and had already used the C-Word towards me. I didn’t want to anger him further.

However, by the time I’d got there it was gone 11am and they’d stopped serving cooked breakfasts in the canteen. Hmm, what to do?

I went back down and suffered another torrent of abuse and again, the C-Word was used, except this time instead of a fry up, he wanted me to go and fill him a carrier bag full of chocolate and crisps from the canteen.

I would’ve called this guy a diva, but he was way too butch to be a diva. I wanst going to mess with him.

Anyway, I did that and thankfully this time I wasn’t branding a useless f***ing C***. Oh the relief.

I then got to escort the Soccerette into the studio and place her beyond the ‘Fox in the Box’ doors, ready for Mr Rushden to reveal her after the ad-break concluded in 4,3,2,1…

“RIGHT, ITS 11 O’CLOCK AND YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS? BUSINESS TIME! ITS TIME TO REVEAL OUR 21^ST CENTURY FOX IN THE BOX…”

Out popped Dalia Hilmi wearing an arsenal shirt and some very skimpy shorts.

She was FIT and had a great accent, but unfortunately was one of the poorer Soccerette’s as she didn’t really get it and Tubes, Rocket and myself began to wonder if she’d actually ever watched the show before?

Anyway, after that I was then asked by one of the producers to get Max a tea. Not in the way I described it though. As I was stood taking to Tubes, Rocket and Bobbie (one of the shows ‘Brown Coat Men’) Simon grabbed me by the arm and pulled me away from them.

What he said to me then went like this: “Right, you can’t stand here, you stand over there at all times unless someone gives you a job to do, and actually, Max needs a tea right now, so go yeah?!”

I expected to be given the rubbish jobs to do, but I’m not an idiot, did he really need to speak to me like that?!

I got Max his tea and as I was stood where Simon had told me I was to “stand at all times” Tubes, Bobbie, Rocket and Steve came over and explained to me that Simon was a clever guy at producing, but unfortunately he hadn’t quite mastered the BA Hons course in people skills. That made me feel a little better and a little calmer, and it was good of the guys to do this.

I got to have a crack at the hole of glory later on after the Saints fans had had their go and after about 22 attempts I managed to get a ball through the hole… but by that point they’d turned the smoke and cameras off.

Then before I knew it, the show had finished and everyone was heading off either to go to bed, to the pub or to the gym. The praise I got off everyone was terrific and although I hadn’t really done anything production related, I’d ran around for about four hours, so I was ready for a nap myself.

It was a terrific experience though seeing how the show was put together ‘Live’ and was really interesting to watch.

I did wonder as I headed home if my second week could possibly top my first full week in the world of SoccerAM?

And you know what… you’ll have to wait until the next blog to find out!

Life in the world of Soccer AM –Week 1

I arrived in Richmond, London, late Sunday afternoon and as my weeks at Sky Sports would be from Tuesday until Saturday, I figured I might as well head into London on Monday and see some sights. Get out of the Goldfish Bowl as a certain Mr T Bowles would tell me.

And yes, I did do all the typical touristy sights before I returned back to my room in St Margaret’s to get an early night, ready for my first day in the work ex world of Sky Sports.

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TUESDAY:

So, after a short train journey, I arrived at the Sky Sports complex in Twickenham.

After explaining to the security guard on the gatehouse that I was there on work experience, he gave me my pass and signed me in.

Before long two sports runners came and collected me, and two other lads who were also beginning work ex placements and we did the tour. We saw Sky News, Sky Graphics, the props department and SkySports.com. It is literally like a military base in the middle of Twickenham.

After that I was told I would be working on the production of Soccer AM for the next two weeks which meant I’d be working with Rushden, Tubes, Rockett, Helen and Baby Elvis. Fantastic.

I was then made to do the mandatory ‘Health & Safety’ training. Fantastic! Not! 'Health&Safety' weren't around to make it fun either...

Still, the two runners were sound and upon discovering that the safety induction programming wasn’t working, they closed down the website and told me that if anyone asked to say I’d done the training and they’d cover for me as long as I didn’t do anything stupid like nail myself to the floor or touch a plug socket with wet hands.

So far, so good…

The afternoon basically consisted of pottering around the Soccer AM office and running tapes backwards and forwards between the office and the Sky Sports Archive library.

Whilst in the office I got to meet Tubes, Rockett, Steve, Scott and Bobbie (the prop master) as well as Max Rushden.

Bobbie was sound and pretty much took me under his wing from the off, giving me jobs to do and people to speak to, whilst mocking my accent. He also asked me if I fancied going with him straight from the office that night to play football with him and the rest of the team.

I was immediately conflicted. I really wanted to, but I am woefully bad at football and therefore there was the potential for me to make myself look a prat.

After a good 30 seconds of consideration, I said yes. Although I did warn him I was bad and emphasised it again when Bobbie laughed by saying: “No, I’m not being modest, I am actually shit”.

I’m a firm believer that honesty is always the best policy.

I also had a slight problem. I didn’t have any kit with me or boots to play in, but that was soon solved as Bobbie delved into the props cupboard.

Sorted… well almost, I just needed boots.

Then the most bizarre thing happened. Rushden called me over and produced a pair of very old Adidas boots.

“There you go. You’re a Geordie boy; these were Peter Beardsley’s from Italia 90. I’m sure you’ll do him and the boots proud tonight.”

Oh how little you know of me Mr Rushden.

We played football, my team got beat but just to clarify, Rocket has unbelievable ‘tekkers’!

Overall a great first day in the world of SoccerAM.

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Wednesday:

My second day in the world of SoccerAm was fairly quiet.

By quiet I mean I sat and watched them gather together footage from League 1 and 2 as well as heading over to an Edit suite to see how the ‘Team-Mates’ segment is edited down. This week the club was Blackburn Rovers and to be honest it wasn’t the greatest ‘team-mates’ I’ve ever seen. Still, it was interesting enough.

Back in the office I learnt to duck fast as Tubes and Baby Elvis blasted a pink Aston Villa football back and forth between them. I suppose this is the normal behaviour in an office that lives and breathes football 24/7.

The day passed quietly enough with me finishing off the day being locked in an edit suite with Baby Elvis and a senior editor (who shall remain nameless) listening to them talk about performing ‘sex-acts’ shall we say on ladies with a rather large amount of hair down below.

I digress, but to say I wasn’t learning a lot on this placement would be an understatement…

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Thursday:

The highlight of the morning in the SoccerAM office had to be when they got 17 cases of ‘Frijj’ milkshake delivered for free off their sponsor.

The downside of the free milky refreshment arrival was that I was given the job of unpacking all 17 cases and finding refrigerated homes for it all.

From there I was finally allowed into the ‘Props Cupboard’ which is like an lair of football related memorabilia and free footballing products manufacturers want advertised on the show.

One such trinket I found really impressed me. I picked them up and couldn’t believe my eyes. I looked over my shoulder to make sure no one was behind me and immediately began to try them on.

They were a cosy fit, but the fine stitching and gold finish made them worth it. No, I’m talking about Manchester United’s famous number 11, Ryan Giggs’ new boots.

The boots were made by Reebok to commemorate his 800^th performance for United and I’m not going to lie, they were terrific. If I could’ve, I would have tried to smuggle them out of the SoccerAm office, but the place is like Fort Knox when it comes to free goods. I mean, they count how many Fox-In-The-Box t-shirts they have at the end of each day, just to make sure no ones been too handy whilst in the props cupboard.

Who knows what would happen if they turned up one short?

Steve Sutcliffe aka ‘Fernando Steven’ also pulled out a great Anti-Arsenal chant in response to some banter with Bobbie (who is an arsenal fan) after a brief spot of lunch, shouting this as loud as he could across the office: “With a packet of sweets, and a cheeky smile, Arsene Wenger is a F***ing paedophile”.

In the afternoon I was involved in scouting a location to be used in a sketch they were filming which spoofed the news story that Manchester United’s Ji-Sung Park apparently drank Frog Juice as a youngster.

Times were obviously tough in South Korea back in the 90’s!

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Friday:

The final day before the live show, and what a day it turned out to be. Absolute chaos on set.

I was literally running around like a blue-arsed fly all day.

The day started off well enough. I met Ms SoccerAM, Helen Chamberlain and she was fantastic! Not quite as fantastic as Ms Thompson, but she gives a cracking hug and really made me feel welcome. Also, because she drives an Aston Martin she therefore gets a bonus mark for having good taste in cars!

I then was able to sit on the SoccerAm sofa, which is surprisingly uncomfortable, and watch as they shot ‘Our man in a caff’. It was great to see it being put together, even if Trev’s accent was a bit off the mark at times.

I was then lucky enough to be chauffer driven into Hounslow High Street later which is one of the nicest places in the UK I’ve ever been to.

I lie, it’s a right dump. The driver even locked our doors at one set of traffic lights, although I think that may have been more to do with the fact he was a bit unhinged than anything to do with the area, as I’m sure when I first got in the car to meet him, he growled at me?!

Later on in the afternoon I then got to play the part of ‘Dahlia’ the Soccerette as they did the run through. I can honestly say there is nothing quite like telling Max Rushden you’re a 32 DD in front of an audience of strangers, under hot lighting before being made to limbo whilst balancing a ball on your pair of imaginary breasts, to make you feel welcomed within the working environment.

This was followed by more running around before I eventually got home at about 10pm.

Quick sleep before heading back into the office for 7am, ready for the live show…

The next blog on how being in the studio for the live show went will follow shortly. Check back and give it a read...