[Archived] Difference Between Hughes And Souness

[AndyC]

OK - I know there's a thousand differences, but this quote on Sky Sports today really brought it home to me:

"But we're acknowledged as one of the better teams in the Premier League, and people are actually talking about us in those terms.

"That's something new for us, something we have to get used to, which raises expectations.

"I've always subscribed to the view you should work to those expectations, not try to dampen things down and hope to over-achieve.

"Fans want to believe there's a chance of winning big games, winning silverware.

"Sometimes there can be false dawns, but I just sense with this group of players we have now that the next step is to try and win some silverware if we can."

In the Souness era, everything was always geared at damping down expectations, although I suspected at the time, this was merely to the supporters he said the opposite to the players. But reading the quotes like these, helps to put rovers on the map and starts to change peoples perceptions of the club.

Well done Mark - you're doing a legendary job.

[1864roverite]

The difference is in man management skills and communication, team selection, signings,tactics,nouse,training,knowing his staff, not arguing......the list can go on if you like

[tchocky]

Just have to add one more thing to that: watching a player closely before signing him.

[Hasta]

The one thing I would give Souness over Hughes, and its the only thing and can be outweighed by a zillion other points, is this.

If things weren't working and needed changing then Souness wouldn't wait. He'd often make substitutions at half time or early in the second half whereas sometimes Hughes will wait till there's only 10 or 15 minutes left.

[Alex Rover]

The one thing I would give Souness over Hughes, and its the only thing and can be outweighed by a zillion other points, is this.

If things weren't working and needed changing then Souness wouldn't wait. He'd often make substitutions at half time or early in the second half whereas sometimes Hughes will wait till there's only 10 or 15 minutes left.

Again that's not always a good thing. I'd hazard a guess that Hughes' loyalty with sticking with the system comes good just as much as Souness' snap judgement did on changing the system.

[Roar of the Rover]

I think Sparky's much more ambitious than Souness. Souness always wanted to survive first and then go on from there, where as Sparky targets the top 10 first.

[Drummer Boy]

To me, Souness was the right man at the right time ................... and left at the right time for us and him. Do not forget what a good job he did sorting the dross out and kicking a few backsides as well as regaining Premiership status, qualifying for Europe (twice) and winning a major trophy.

Having said all that, Hughes was the right man to carry on from where Souness left off as I reckon GS had taken the club as far as he could and it needed a more "rounded" approach such as that of MH to get us to the next stage of development.

[Mozzer]

souness demanded respect, hughes earns it..

[Eddie]

Whilst I agree with virtually everything that has been said, I also think that you have to put each of their styles in context. Souness was in charge when we were promoted, that meant that for his first couple of seasons the priority really was to stay in the league, no matter how talented the players were. I do agree that he was often overly negative when he talked about our ambitions, but I do think it is important just to look at that difference.

I also agree that sometimes Hughes is a bit reluctant to change things and try and influence the game "himself". Now this shows great trust in his players and his system, something that is a good sign, but I do feel that it sometimes works against us.

[John]

Apart from this season, I don't think Hughes has ever felt happy with the quality/depth of the squad. Therefore, he has been reluctant to make changes in games, as he does not subscribe to the notion of change for changes sake.

He likes players to be able to come on and make an impact (as he says), so we may see him making earlier subs this season - time will tell. We certainly have the options up front.

[Roost]

souness demanded respect, hughes earns it..

Perfect comparison Mozzer........

One Love - BRFC

[McClarky]

If things weren't working and needed changing then Souness wouldn't wait. He'd often make substitutions at half time or early in the second half whereas sometimes Hughes will wait till there's only 10 or 15 minutes left.

Get your point but how many times did Souness make a change when he didn't need to and end up throwing a game away. Many thats how many. It used toi be 1 of the things that annoyed me most about him. I think he often went for the knee-jerk reaction you would expect from him rather than the considered reaction you would expect from Hughes.

[Hasta]

Get your point but how many times did Souness make a change when he didn't need to and end up throwing a game away. Many thats how many. It used toi be 1 of the things that annoyed me most about him. I think he often went for the knee-jerk reaction you would expect from him rather than the considered reaction you would expect from Hughes.

Possibly. It's just my one gripe with Hughes. I remember mentioning it post-match when we had to score and went out against Leverkusen 0-0 when it took about 70 minutes to make 1 change and then another 15 to make a second one. We'd hardly been carving them open all game either.

I'm still waiting for someone to chastise me for blasphemy over this piece of personal nitpicking :ph34r: .

One thing, under our current financial restraints I wouldn't swap Hughes for any other manager in the Prem.

[USABlue]

One thing, under our current financial restraints I wouldn't swap Hughes for any other manager in the Prem.

Even without the financial constraints I can't think of another manager. I stuck with Souness to the end I can clearly see how wrong I was. One thing I like better about Souness than Hughes was listening to him, the man has an aura about him. I always liked his interviews. Sparky's quieter but I think speaks a lot more truth than Souness

[Blueboy Downunder]

in my mind the biggest difference between the two managers is that you could feel the positivity of sparky when he arrived here a few years ago. giving the players something to aim for, setting them a target for the season and little sub-targets that they had to achieve, whereas souness was all doom and gloom and just happy to avoid relegation and then see where we go from there.

[thecomebackid]

I tend to agree. Souness initially did a decent job in trying circumstances. Whilst we can't overlook the likes of Amoruso & 'Ciccio' (& many of us at the time were hearing unsettling rumours regarding that particular big money signing), credit to him also for bringing in Big Brad & MGP. Strangely enough, when Souness first went to Southampton a few years before he took the Rovers job, he couched his language in similar terms to MH. I vaguely remember him stating that it wasn't enough for him to preside over a team whose only ambition is to survive. Indeed, wasn't it a 'lack of ambition' the main reason why he walked out on the Saints? It was deflating to hear him then using the opposite language about us. Perhaps somewhere en route to Ewood Park, somewhere between Lisbon & Istanbul his self-belief drained away?

[McClarky]

Souness developed an eccentric signing policy later in his career as well. he would sign players who play in the same position and then try and fit them into a 4-4-2 with half of them playing out of position. I believe he was even worse at this when he was at Newcastle. Remember singing "He'll be playing Alan Shearer at the back" during that game at Newcastle when he first went there. Well he had Bellamy in midfield and midfield players all over the park but failed to sign any decent defenders.

I tend to agree with the comments about Hughes being a bit slow to make a change sometimes.....not at Boro though.

[Daremz]

No uncanny resemblances?

* Graeme Souness has no famous name-counterpart (Mark Hughes also is the founder of Herbalife)

* Mark Hughes doesn't looks like Borat

* Mark Hughes is able to turn things around with substitutes

* The amount of money spent

* The attraction to 'big' players because Mark Hughes is a hero. And Souness isn't.

[dave birch]

Souness developed an eccentric signing policy later in his career as well. he would sign players who play in the same position and then try and fit them into a 4-4-2 with half of them playing out of position. I believe he was even worse at this when he was at Newcastle. Remember singing "He'll be playing Alan Shearer at the back" during that game at Newcastle when he first went there. Well he had Bellamy in midfield and midfield players all over the park but failed to sign any decent defenders.

I tend to agree with the comments about Hughes being a bit slow to make a change sometimes.....not at Boro though.

Good points there McClarky.

Daremz, what has Sparky won as a manager?

Yes, he's doing all the right things at the moment, and yes, he should get there, but as of today?

Would I have Sparky before Souness? Today, most certainly. A few years back when we were struggling in the Championship, maybe not.

[thenodrog]

....credit to him also for bringing in Big Brad & MGP.

and Tugay.

Souness should have left after winning the Worthy Cup and getting us to Europe the season after and we'd have thought he was the dogsbollox.

Jansens stupidity, Dunny's attitude problems, Duffs transfer and some very dodgy deals clouded his tenure and ultimately dealt him massive body blows.

[Ronin]

Do agree with some of the points. Souness was good for us at the time (Promotion, Worthy Cup, Europe), and Hughes is definitely good for us now (improving the team and morale to push us to the next level, three semi finals, and Europe). I guess the big difference between the two of them is that Hughes is much more positive in his comments after matches, and Souness was always much more negative with his Lady Luck, weeing with the willy we've got etc comments. Used to annoy me with those type of comments.

[MCMC1875]

Right time, right place - for both of 'em.

[BrianPotter]

Anyone know what the total spent by each manager was in their time at Rovers.

I haven't got time at the moment to sit down and work it out, but my thought is that Souness must be a least double, if not more, than what Hughes has spent.

[Claytons Left Boot]

We have won 10 majors in our entire history - the most successful town club in the history of English football - and Souness got one of them.

Still prefer Hughesy though and hopefully it won't be too long before Mark gets his hands on some silverware.

[rover6]

Souness was arrogant and thus ignorant. Hughes is neither.

An example of Souness' failings (oh yes, I've got an attic full of files on them...) which can be put down to ignorance and crap attention to detail.

When he secured Vratty Gresko on loan he stated that the deal was unlikely to be converted into a permanent transfer. Now why was that, was it because he was unsure of whether Gresko would be good enough for Rovers? Was it because he had another target in mind and Gresko was just a stop-gap?

Nope. Souness said that we were not going to be able to sign Gresko permanently because we would probably not be able to afford him. After all, he'd move to Inter for a massive fee, way out of our league.

Souness had clearly done no research on Gresko. He had no awareness that since his transfer to Inter, he had become something of a pariah for making a number of damaging blunders and that at the time of joining rovers, Gresko was languishing in Parma's reserves and available to just about anyone who wanted him.

A small example, but quite vivid, I think.

Edit: Sorry, just gotta add this. Something has troubled me a lot about Souness - and that is the question of how someone who has managed on the continent for the length of time he did could have zero grasp of tactics (as confessed by Souey himself). The mind just boggles. On the continent tactics are king - they love analysing the game in that fashion over there.