Pre Blades: Hughton

Speaking about his appointment and the upcoming battle with the Blades at Bramall, Chris Hughton has talked about the expectations of the fans and the prospects of him becoming an even longer term manager at SJP. Hughton said:

"The things utmost in your mind are the excitement of being in the position and the job in hand. Longer term (the target) is to earn an extended contract and the only way you`ll do that is by doing well enough in the period of time that you`re here. That means getting this club back up into the Premier League.

What I have been told is that it`s for me to work around what we can bring in and what we need, whether it`s loan players or players there`s a possibility of purchasing in the window. If we`re able to do that then I certainly will get backing from the club. It hasn`t been ruled out but also I have not been given any figures as to what that would be.

There are areas we are looking at and assessing, we`ll do that over a period of time. For me it`s about making the right decisions. If we feel that we need to make any changes, and strengthen any position, we will do. Regarding targets, there are always new ones.

Something we`ve found in looking to bring in loan players is that you might have targets and within a couple of days somebody else becomes available, clubs change their minds. So it`s always an ongoing thing, you set up a structure that enables you to know the players that are available. It`s an area that we`re very much looking at and will continue to look at.

At the moment probably the area that`s been most stretched is centre-half, because of the injuries we`ve had. We`re not closing the door on bringing others in before the next window."

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