Chris Hughton

"In the summer of 2013, having consolidated Norwich in the Premier League after promotion, Hughton tried to change the pragmatic style of his team in a bid to upgrade what he had. On paper, the signings looked excellent: Ricky van Wolfswinkel, Leroy Fer, Nathan Redmond, Javier Garrido, Gary Hooper and Johan Elmander. But in reality, Hughton had changed too much. He was sacked in April, with Norwich relegated the following month having scored 28 goals and taken 33 points. Hughton had to battle to redeem his own reputation.

Now it’s way too early to say the same thing about Brighton, but Hughton has signed 11 players this summer, and seven of them will reasonably hope to feature in the first team. That’s an awful lot of change for a club that stayed up last season doing the simple things well. Even if you consider that upgrades were needed, eight of those players have come from abroad and will take time to settle. By then, Brighton could be playing catch-up.

On Saturday, they capitulated against a Watford team who are predicted to struggle this season. Brighton failed to have a single shot on target and forced only two corners. It was a worse performance than almost any other from last season.

Only one new signing started for Brighton at Vicarage Road, with two more coming off the bench. They will need to get up to speed, with their next two fixtures against Manchester United and Liverpool. There is no reason for alarm yet, but Norwich fans will be waiting to try and spot the familiar signs."

User Posted Link

personally, i don't really care about him or Brighton enough to try and spot any signs at all - but, by a closer margin than the gammons winning a referendum, i'd like him to succeed and Brighton to fail - if such a thing is possible

Posted By: Ralf Scrampton, Aug 13, 13:18:39