Hughton’s Ghana reign was also short lived.
Appointed as technical director by the GFA in February 2022, he moved into the head coach role in February 2023 but lasted less than 12 months before being sacked in January 2024 after his team failed to get out of their group at the 2023 Afcon in Ivory Coast.
The former Ireland full-back, who won two FA Cups and a Uefa Cup with Tottenham Hotspur and coached Newcastle, Norwich and Brighton in the Premier League, is one of five men who have taken on the Ghana job in the past six years.
Charles Akonnor, Milovan Rajevac, Otto Addo and Queiroz are the others, with the chopping and changing further illustrated by the fact that Addo had two spells in charge during that time.
Kwesi Appiah, the current Sudan boss, lasted 33 months during his second stint with the Black Stars between April 2017 and January 2020 – the longest anyone has managed since legendary Afcon-winning coach Fred Osam-Duodu in the late 1970s and early 80s.
With Ghana in real danger of missing out on a second successive Afcon finals, Hughton believes the situation has been exacerbated by under-investment and what he describes as “fearsome” competition across the continent.
“Many years ago Ghana were at a level that was, if not the best team in Africa, certainly right up there,” said the 67-year-old.
“You’ve seen the emergence of so many other good African nations that have made the competition levels that much higher.
“Some of these countries have so many other problems, but I do think that there needs to be an injection of government money into the structure and into the system.”
Hughton feels more needs to be done to encourage the development of the game in the West African nation.
“In Ghana, the local game that used to produce so many good players, the support level is not there,” he said.
“They’re playing on pitches that are not of a great level and the supporters are not coming.
“The supporters in Ghana love the Black Stars most, first and foremost, and of course the Premier League is massive there, but there isn’t that support for the local game that there used to be.
“I think the government needs to do more as regards putting money into the infrastructure.”