[Archived] Hughes Up For The Chop

[Lathund]

I'd want MH to stay even if we went down. I mean who would we get instead? A "journeyman" that's spent 1-2 seasons at a dozen different clubs? No thanks. An unproven quality is a risk, why replace something that works OK with something that might be great, might be useless, or anything inbetween? Especially when it'll cost us to terminate his, and I'd imagine Bowen's and Niedzwiecki's etc. contracts too. If we do get relegated, we can't waste a penny.

Besides, and this isn't a sentiment shared by everyone, I know, we aren't as good as last season made us look. And even if we were, the loss of Bellamy and the injuries, as tedious as it is to hear people bang on and on about it, did matter. Bellamy scored a couple of very important braces during the second half of last season for example, and there were a couple of games that we would've lost if not for Nelsen saving almost certain goals (Some of the tackles and interceptions he made last season were perhaps the best I've ever seen).

Now ofcourse injuries aren't the whole story, the blame for our inability to play well for more than 45 minutes obviously lies largely with Hughes and his staff. But that's not reason enough to fire him, especially not in our position. Patience can pay off. One example from my home country is Elfsborg; they took several months to decide on a manger, a complete unknown 40 year old. After half of his first season in charge, the club was in the relegation zone, but they stuck by him and they won their first title in like 50 years this season.

Basically my point with that was that even the right man for the job gets it wrong sometimes. And Hughes is not the type of person to give up.

[FourLaneBlue]

Come to think about it has anybody considered that if KMD had not resigned then he too might have experienced it all going tits up like it had at Liverpool?

Funny old game Saint........

It only went tits up at Liverpool under Souness. IIRC Liverpool were top of the table in February (or at most a point or two off) when he resigned.

[thenodrog]

In my memory Liverpool had already started their decline. Souness was left with a poorer squad than the Lpool 'norm' and didn't help himself by buying even worse players. Strange but with a few exceptions wasting money has been the Liverpool norm ever since.

[Fife Rover]

What a stupid thread. Hughes is absolutely nowhere near the chop.

We have just played the best pure footballing side in the world and had them in panic after we pulled it back to 2-3 with a team missing SIX players.

Oh, and we qualified top of our group in the UEFA Cup.

At last a voice of sanity! What the hell is wrong with you previous posters; did Santa forget you or something?

Talk about the night of the long knives?

Get a bloody grip you hysterical loonies!!

One of the problems of message boards these days is that it gives people the opportunity to abuse, revile, humiliate and criticise others in the public eye with no regard for their feelings or expertise or experience in the game. You only have to listen to football phone-ins to hear the usual litany of complaints after a heavy defeat.Let`s sack the manger; he`s lost the dressing room is another cliche, he`s taken us as far as he can; we have all heard them.

Hughesy has /is doing a fine job at ewood and long may it continue.We all know that he will be going to a bigger stage at some point so let`s enjoy his tenure rather than stupidly calling for his head.

And another one with a bit of sense. Any more that have not completely lost the plot?

[Dufflite]

I have never seen such a ridiculous thread on here for quite sometime...get rid of Hughes???...jeez there are some very stupid people around who knee jerk before engaging grey matter.

..who would the Hughes detractors want in his place - come on - lets hear some suggestions. I'm sure they will give me as much of a laugh as the inane comments on this thread!

[tonygreenbank]

Eddie, Rovers beat Liverpool today 1-0. Does this mean that Hughesy gets a little bit more time now before the sack?

[FourLaneBlue]

In my memory Liverpool had already started their decline. Souness was left with a poorer squad than the Lpool 'norm' and didn't help himself by buying even worse players. Strange but with a few exceptions wasting money has been the Liverpool norm ever since.

At the time they were reigning champions and challenging for the title. It was only the next season, with Souness in charge, that things messed up and people started defending Souness by trying to lay some blame on Dalglish. One of the first decisions from Souness was to let Peter Beardsley go due to him being past it. It was another five years before Beardsley's last cap for England...

Alas...Souness was and is just a very inconsistent manager. The highs follow the lows with great speed...yet he always manages to heap a load of the blame on the previous manager. Your memory is playing tricks on you or, more likely, you have believed some of the excuses. In reality if Dalglish had stayed Liverpool might have declined but it would have taken years. Under Souness it happened in months and possibly even weeks.

[Fife Rover]

i don't doubt hughes at the minute the teams in trouble and its plain to anyone with eyes where the glaring problems are. With the windows he has'nt been able to do anything, my confidence will be tested if he does'nt rectify certain positions and goes ahead bringing in more over the hill has beens i'll cry with desperation if he signs a 40 year old. If he persists much longer with ooijer i'll worry about his ability to hold his hands up and admit an expensive flop, maybe our chairman should be more like the charlton fella and point out what everyone but the manager see's a waste of space liability !

Are you a Dingle? Nobody else could be so stupid or provocative. If you think Ooijer is useless then you quite obviously have no idea at all about fooball. Come on admit it this is all a wind-up!

[Jan]

Funnily enough I have no relegation worries, mainly because I am confident Hughes knows what is wrong, and if plan A doesn't work, has a plan B and possibly even a plan C.

Also it's much rarer now to see players played completely out of position. (the MGP as striker experiment aside). And it's clear the coaching team also know what they're doing, and aren't scared to make suggestions to the boss- who listens.

I also don't think we're likely to buy anyone on the strength of a video. If anything we're too cautious on acquisitions- although I'd prefer that to another Grabbi. And I also don't see the point of persisting with someone who's not good enough just becauase his passport says he plays in a position we're short of (ie Jon Douglas).

I think it's actually a testament to Hughes that we have lost vital team members, qualified for the knockout stages in Europe and still are in a position to make a charge up the league. And hopefully with a few new faces to come in too!!

So he should be, and I'm sure is, in no danger of being sacked.

[Lathund]

Also it's much rarer now to see players played completely out of position. (the MGP as striker experiment aside).

And even that is, unlike some of Souey's projects (Matteo at left midfield??), not a bad idea in theory. I mean Pedersen has an eye for goal, is a good finisher and is decent in the air. That it didn't quite work out is a different matter, it was still something worth trying IMO.

[Y.B.]

Barmy thread. We have won as many games as we have lost in all competitions this season. The break from European football should give us chance to make up ground in the league and get a number of key squad members back to fitness. Bear in mind that last season it took us until this time of year to break into the top half of the table. We have a game in hand that could put us level with 10th place on points. Keep the faith.

I'm looking foward to seeing Roberts back. I think he will give us the same kind of striking options that Shefki gave us last year, but with more quality. We have seen next to nothing of Benni/Roberts together upfront this season. For me this is our best pairing.

[USABlue]

Are you a Dingle? Nobody else could be so stupid or provocative. If you think Ooijer is useless then you quite obviously have no idea at all about fooball. Come on admit it this is all a wind-up!

See the user name, would any self respecting Rovers fan pick such a name

[B.R.F.C]

Hughes...sacked

Absolute madness

[Darth Paul]

Maybe this thread should be closed now? What next for the knee jerk panic merchants?

[James No. 7]

Maybe this thread should be closed now? What next for the knee jerk panic merchants?

We win one game and you want to close the thread? Knee-jerk?

[thenodrog]

Funnily enough I have no relegation worries,

I have no serious ones either BUT I must admit to recently looking for the results of West Ham / Sheff Utd / Charlton and Boro before any others Jan! ........ Funnily enough.

[McClarky]

Maybe the "Hughes Out" brigade will be saying "Give him a contract for life" now.

[joey_big_nose]

I don't know why everybody is being so self righteouss. I think it's quite right for the subject of Hughes being sacked cropping up on the message board. Noone was suggesting he was going to go immediately, but in the position we were in it was becoming more of an issue.

Like I said earlier he is doing a great job IMO and has been a victim of circumstance but I don't see why it shouldn't be discussed at all.

[tcj_jones]

This reminds me of the time Flopsystarted a "Hughes out" thread because we lost a single game. This one is almostas pointless.

[Eddie]

Stupid thread, read the first post and moved to here. Even if we go down, which we are not going to, I would Mark Highes as our manager. I really don't understand where you are coming from Eddie.

I really don't get this. As I said, or at least hope that I did, I don't want Hughes sacked at this point in time, but if he yet again fails to address the problems in the transfer window and our poor form continues (yesterday obviously showing an improvement) then surely a change would be needed. It is obvious that Hughes is untouchable to most Rovers fans, much like Souness was for a good period of time. We were wrong with Souness (I was one of them) and we could be wrong with Hughes as well. Now I'm not calling for his head at this moment in time, but we are in a serious situation and if it isn't turned around relatively soonish then he will have undone any of the good work that he has done during his time here.

For those of you saying this is a pointless thread, I believe that before yesterday we had only won 2/10 games or something like that, that is relegation form over a sustained period of time. Just as I don't consider my first post on this thread to be "knee-jerk" I also don't believe that a good win against Liverpool yesterday (which could have been all so different had they taken some of their first half chances) suddenly means that we are safe and can now look to European qualification. I was interested to see what the opinion on here was as to how long Hughes should have to turn it around, the general opinion seems to be that it is as long as he wants until he buggers off to United, my question has been answered.

[stuwilky]

I was interested to see what the opinion on here was as to how long Hughes should have to turn it around, the general opinion seems to be that it is as long as he wants until he buggers off to United, my question has been answered.

Dont post like a child with a smacked arse Edward.

You havnt even given an answer to your own question - well cerainly not specific anyway "until January" - what on earth does that mean? Do you mean until the end of the season? Allowing the players bought/loaned in January to make an impact - you dont get overnight results. How do you guage how he does in the market, surely that requires an impact:outlay ratio being produced, what would your personal target be for the club to acheieve by the end of the season?

I dont know how anyone can say he hasnt done the business in the transfer market - on one of the most restricted transfer and wage budgets in the league.

And having seen how Hughes has transformed the club, I would also want Hughes to stay IF we did go down (which we wont)

[joey_big_nose]

And having seen how Hughes has transformed the club, I would also want Hughes to stay IF we did go down (which we wont)

Just playing devil's advocate, but this is exactly what was said about Souness and aguably the Scot had more of a claim to 'turning the clubaround'. Promotion, a Worthington cup and achieving sixth place in 2003 with one of the finest attacking Rovers side ever produced. Everybody, well nearly everybody, thought he was outstanding. And then things change.

Theres no dout Souness did out standingthings for the club: Our team today is partly built around Souness signings (Freidal, Neill, Reid, Pedersen and, of course, Tugay) and he won us a trophy. Yet eventually its time to part. I sincerely hope, and believe, this isn't going to happen with Hughes, but you cannot apply blind faith. It comes down to results.

[Eddie]

I find the level of defense for the man to be unbelievable. Whenever someone dares to question his decisions or position they are met with fierce responses.

Without a doubt he failed in the transfer market this summer. He managed to bring in no midfield cover or inject any pace into the midfield, something every member of this board was screaming for from the end of last season.

I think we are in a more dangerous position then a lot of Rovers fans want to let on. I don't believe that we will go down, I'd like to actually believe that we can still finish quite high up the table, but I still am not going to use blind optimism to defend those in charge of a team that is in danger. We have some very winnable games coming up in January and if we fail to get a good haul of points from January and early February and find ourselves in or very close to the relegation zone then I think his position will have to be assessed. I am not calling for him to be fired, simply saying that unlike a good percentage of this board I do not consider him to be this saint of a manager who can do no wrong and who I would happily see stick with us through thick and thin.

Just playing devil's advocate, but this is exactly what was said about Souness and aguably the Scot had more of a claim to 'turning the clubaround'. Promotion, a Worthington cup and achieving sixth place in 2003 with one of the finest attacking Rovers side ever produced. Everybody, well nearly everybody, thought he was outstanding. And then things change.

Theres no dout Souness did out standingthings for the club: Our team today is partly built around Souness signings (Freidal, Neill, Reid, Pedersen and, of course, Tugay) and he won us a trophy. Yet eventually its time to part. I sincerely hope, and believe, this isn't going to happen with Hughes, but you cannot apply blind faith. It comes down to results.

You did a very good job of summing up what I was basically trying to get across.

[BuckyRover]

I will stick with him through thick and thin.

Longevity breeds success

[stuwilky]

So, lovely, plenty of words, but no substance and certainly no answer to the question I posed to you.