Quote:
Originally Posted by diane_phaneuf
Hughton is a great manager, Newcastle firing him made no sense (although Pardew has proven to be good)
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While it was a blow to lose Lambert, especially in a messy breakup, Hughton has exceeded all expectations so far. Although I wouldn't expect Norwich to stay in 7th for much longer given a tough stretch of fixtures coming up, they are higher than most people (myself included) expected them to be at this point.
He made a number of excellent acquisitions over the summer. Bassong has been huge, Garrido, Whittaker. Even Turner (after a couple of bad games at the start of the season). The defence was last year's weak spot, and it has been totally revamped and improved.
Signing Bunn as an experienced backup has proved to be vital. Snodgrass and Tettey have also been great.
Although Norwich fans will forever be grateful of Lambert pulling the team out of the dark ages, Hughton has made this team his own. My only criticism is that he seems to leave his substitutions until very late in the game, long after the point where Norwich are scrambling and some players are struggling. But on the other hand, he's getting the results, so it is hard to moan about it. But there have been a few games where it seemed like they were barely hanging on and the game was crying out for some fresh legs.