I’m still in shock that Newcastle are searching for a new manager with the way they’ve been performing this campaign. The Magpies sit in a comfortable 12th position after just coming off a promotion from the Championship, yet manager Chris Hughton got the sack, as the board
“Chris is such a lovely guy. Top man. This will hit the players hard. The players admired him, and liked him, and won’t be happy now he’s gone like this.”
The former England, Arsenal and Tottenham centre-back added: “You have got to ask yourself why this has happened because it makes no sense. Here is a guy who has done an unbelievable job. He got the club back into the Premier league and any manager would have been rewarded for that with a new contract – but Chris wasn’t.
“The players are sure to be asking themselves ‘what the hell is going on?’, that is only natural.
“We all had a good relationship with the players, and when we left training this morning none of the players had a clue this was coming.
“But word started to spread that the bookies had stopped taking bets and the players started texting each other with the news.
“Yes, it has come as a shock, and it will affect the dressing room there is no doubt about that.”
Regardless, the men in the Newcastle jersey have to move on. The Newcastle board wants to move forward with someone else, but Martin Jol is not the man. Why, you ask? Jol is a quitter. What makes you think he won’t quit if things go badly in the first couple months at Newcastle? He quit out of thin air when the Amsterdam giants Ajax were five points off the pace in the league this campaign, citing high expectations the ultimate demise of his job. What? Does Jol or the board really expect that he won’t have high expectations on him in England, especially considering his resume?
The only choice I see as a viable option is former Aston Villa boss Martin O’Neill. 
O’Neill is just 4 months removed from his resignation at Villa Park and overall has a better grasp on the English game than Jol. Plus, O’Neill main reason for resignation only supports a look from the Newcastle board: he resigned because of lack of resources. In his tenure for the Villains, O’Neill made boys out of men, carrying the squad on his back to the club’s first cup final in 10 years and an extremely respectable 6th place finish in the league and a spot in Europe. What more can he do when the clubs above him are spending truckloads of cash each transfer period other than quit? O’Neill is the logical choice for the Magpies. Maybe a Jol hater because I can’t stand quitters. You tell me.
Written by Chris Behrens
