[Archived] Sparky - Not A Great Manager?

[tony gale's mic]

And we did a lot for Hughes, gave us his first Premier League managerial job, were a good well run club, supported him to the full (except financially but then thats out of our control)...it's a two way thing.

[John]

And we did a lot for Hughes, gave us his first Premier League managerial job, were a good well run club, supported him to the full (except financially but then thats out of our control)...it's a two way thing.

Yes, obviously it was a two way thing, but that does not mean you lay into him at the first occasion.

[tony gale's mic]

Yes, obviously it was a two way thing, but that does not mean you lay into him at the first occasion.

It's football, it's sport, "you're getting sacked in the morning" is fans banter, it hardly crosses the line does it? Besides, I would have seen him in a much better light had he joined a top 4 club or even someone like Villa or Everton, but the fact he left us to join a club which had finished below us and who at the time were in obvious turmoil under Thaksin merely underlined how much he wanted out. He would've left for Newcastle if they'd approached him.

Great manager for us, but doesn't mean he should be spared a few chants when he comes.

[John]

Ulitmately he made the move because he thinks he can progress his career with them rather than us. When you have such tight financial contraints at BRFC, I can understand why he made the move (as much as I was angry/upset when he left).

He is going through a rough patch now, the pressure is on big time, but lets see if his decision ends up being the right one. Yes, they did finish lower than us last season, but I think you will find that it will become impossible for us to continually compete when you cannot invest in the team.

[tony gale's mic]

Ulitmately he made the move because he thinks he can progress his career with them rather than us. When you have such tight financial contraints at BRFC, I can understand why he made the move (as much as I was angry/upset when he left).

He is going through a rough patch now, the pressure is on big time, but lets see if his decision ends up being the right one. Yes, they did finish lower than us last season, but I think you will find that it will become impossible for us to continually compete when you cannot invest in the team.

True but he left for a club who had just sacked Sven for finishing 10th and getting into Europe, and for a chairman who would have seen anything but top 4 as a failure. If Thaksin was still around then Hughes would have been out of a job by now, and although he couldn't have forseen relegation threats as much as he couldn't have forseen the Abu Dhabi investors, if he didn't finish in the top 6 at the end of this season even if Thaksin was still around he'd have been out of a job. If it wasn't for the new investment they'd have been almost certain to go down at this point since they would've needed to sell the likes of Ireland in Jan - and what's more that wouldn't have even been a huge surprise since Thaksin's demise was expected even before Hughes' arrival.

[John]

Ifs, buts and maybes!

Reality is he is still in a job for now and let's see what happens.

[Ewood Spark]

Ulitmately he made the move because he thinks he can progress his career with them rather than us. When you have such tight financial contraints at BRFC, I can understand why he made the move (as much as I was angry/upset when he left).

He is going through a rough patch now, the pressure is on big time, but lets see if his decision ends up being the right one. Yes, they did finish lower than us last season, but I think you will find that it will become impossible for us to continually compete when you cannot invest in the team.

I couldn't give a stuff about his career ... it's a dog eat dog world out there. He chose to make 'little-old-Blackburn' look second rate to Manchester City (MANCHESTER CITY FGS!). I personally can't wait to lay in to him on Sunday.

[thenodrog]

In my opinion Hughes should be sacked he's done such a bad job it's only beaten by Ince. His excuses are nothing short of pathetic either, he's taken a mid table average team spent 50 million or whatever and turned them into a worse team.

In honesty I couldn't be happier but it wont last, no doubt he'll get to spend another £50 million and achieve a mid table finsih and will say what a good job he's done to get them up there.

Hughes hasn't spent a penny yet has he?

[thenodrog]

I couldn't give a stuff about his career ... it's a dog eat dog world out there. He chose to make 'little-old-Blackburn' look second rate to Manchester City (MANCHESTER CITY FGS!). I personally can't wait to lay in to him on Sunday.

I am still of the opinion that he'd been encouraged by Kenyon, Buck and Arneson and that City was his 'stalking horse'.

As with AS I'll applaud him at the start for what he did and definitely for the money he made for our club but once the whistle blows thats where it ends. I wont have any guilt either cos he has done his best to unsettle some of our better players. Brad, and RSc for sure and poss Warnock and Samba.

[Elegia]

Hughes made the move because he thought that having money to spend would make him a better manager. That and the big fat pay cheque every month. I seem to recall words to the effect of I have taken Rovers as far as I can with the limited finances - when he left. Rubbish!! The performances against Coventry in the cup and Birmingham on the last day weren't due to a lack of finances. Based on the half season he has had at City so far I would say he is a worse manager than when he left us. Surely a greater measure of his managerial skills would have been to stay at Rovers and keep us as realistic challengers for the Uefa places. He should have stayed for a couple more seasons at least.

But in time he will realise that having money to buy the best players doesn't make you a good manager - you still have to motivate them and get them playing for the shirt, instead of just thinking about their huge wages and how much more they want for renewing their contract.

Given City's current position the City board may make that realisation before he does.

[philipl]

Well dealing with everything that has been going on at City will have been "character forming".

How that is translating into his ability to produce results on the football pitch is an open question to say the very least. At present the Hughes effect at City looks to be precisely zero which is something I think none of us would have predicted after his time at Ewood.

I am sure Hughes et al must have had more than a few fleeting moments when they wished they were back at Blackburn. Thus far he seems to have had all the downsides of managing a larger/richer/who-on-earth-knows-what-sort=of-farce-they-are club and zero benefits.

Right now, the blue mooners might well run him out of town before he finds out.

[DeadlyDirk]

It seems to be that every interview he does at the moment Hughes keeps talking about the transfer window in and bringing in better players etc. So basically he is blaming the current squad for not being good enough and it is nothing to do with his managerial ability.

No wonder they are not playing well, I doubt half of them want to play for him when they know they are getting replaced in a few weeks time. At the moment the likes of Hart, Richards, Dunne, Robinho, Ireland, Wright Phillips, Kompany, Zabaleta would get into most teams outside the top 4, the other players such as Elano, Sturridge, Ben Haim, are not too far off either.

If Hughes can't get better than relegation zone with those players then he surely has to take some of the blame.

If City are really going to do what they have talked about and spend vast sums to rapidly move them up to challenge for top honours then do they really want to risk £50, £100, £200 million on a manager they may want to get rid of at any moment unless results pick up.

How is the grass on that side anyway Mark, same shade as our side to your dissappointment by any chance?

[Tom]

Hughes hasn't spent a penny yet has he?

Not sure I quite follow

Whether it was his call or not Manchester City the team he is the manager of spent £30mill on robhino in summer, he's the manager he should take the fall if the team don't perform.

He knew he was going to a sham of a club when he joined them.

[cn174]

I'm not too sure that Hughes had much to do with the Robinho deal at all.He's not a bad player to have forced upon you mind.

[philipl]

Hughes made a point of going golfing on 1 September.

From there he masterminded gazumping Man U on Berbatov then gazumpking Chelski on Robinho.

Or not.

[John]

Hughes on Rovers staying up:

“The players, the team, I know their qualities very well. They will be disappointed they have not got the three points but they have the qualities that will get them out of trouble, I am convinced by that.

[Mc Love]

Seems he might have fallen on his sword going by some reports

[joey_big_nose]

Seems he might have fallen on his sword going by some reports

Pardon? Are you saying that he has resigned? Where are the reports?

[Mc Love]

just rumours, but when there is smoke, there must be a fire!

[Billy Castell]

I wonder if all those rumours of Robiniho's influence have some truth in it. If they have, then Chelsea had a very lucky escape.

[RibbleValleyRover]

Rumours on Blue Moon that Elano and Sturridge were arguing and the coaching staff had to get involved.

[dingles staying down 4ever]

I wonder if all those rumours of Robiniho's influence have some truth in it. If they have, then Chelsea had a very lucky escape.

Not really.....big fish in a little pond. At City all he has to do is threaten to walk away and the Arabs fall over themselves to keep their big name happy.

At Chelsea he would of only been a medium sized fish

[Anti Euro Smiths Fan]

He's got a face like a bulldog chewing a wasp...

Not a happy chappy is he?

Hughes had that same look of disgust on his face when we lost to Coventry in the FA Cup last season. I wonder how many more shambolic cup performances Mr Hughes is going to be involved in as a manager?

At Middle Eastlands, his multi-million pound team of fancy dans have been humiliated this season against Brighton in the Carling Cup and now thumped 3-0 at home to a Nottingham Forest side currently near the bottom of the Championship - a team which lost 4-2 at home to Doncaster on Boxing Day.

With Rovers we were torn to pieces 4-1 at home to Coventry in that disgraceful display in the Cup last season. Hughes was also responsible for Carling Cup humiliation at home to Bournemouth and a shocking inept away performance against a mediocre mid-table Greek team, Larissa, in the UEFA Cup.

As a player Hughes jointly holds the record for the most FA Cup winners medals as a player - four. He won the FA Cup with Man United in 1985, 1990 (arguably in that season saving Ferguson's job with a late equaliser in the final against Crystal Palace) and in 1994 Hughes scored in the final for United against Chelsea. Later as a player at Stamford Bridge he won his fourth FA Cup winners medal against Middlesbrough in 1997

Despite his illustrious record as a player in the FA Cup, as a manager in the last two seasons he's been on the receiving end of FA Cup humiliation in the 3rd Round at home to Coventy and now Nottingham Forest. Could it be that Hughes - lauded as one of Britain's best current managers - actually struggles to motivate his team for what should be fairly straightforward run-of-the-mill Cup matches at home to lower division opposition?

Or could it be that despite all the praise and plaudits he got while at Rovers, Hughes is actually not half as tactically astute as many Rovers fans thought he was. Perhaps he struggles with a Plan 'B' and Plan 'C' when Plan 'A' isn't working?

Whatever the reasons, apart from among the folk at Middle Eastlands, I daresay that much of the country were delighted when City lost to Forest on Saturday. There's been an unseemly arrogance in the way that Manchester City have gone about their transfer business this season. Hughes previously claimed that he didn't talk about other players in public who are contracted to other clubs. But back in the summer Hughes was spouting his mouth off in the media about Santa Cruz and I lost respect for the Welshman as a result.

Indeed I lost respect for him the moment he decided to jump ship and hop into bed with a ruthless corrupt authoritarian tyrant - Mr Thaksin Shinawatra - a man strongly condemned by Amnesty International as "a human rights abuser of the worst kind", as well as apparently being a man involved in corrupt practices like money laundering and tax evasion.

It was suggested in the summer by a couple of our senior board members on this website that Hughes is "a man of principle" who wouldn't leave Blackburn Rovers for a dodgy owner.

Principles my a*se. Hughes would probably be willing to jump into bed with Robert Mugabe if it meant furthering his own managerial career. I was absolutely disgusted with him holding hands, so to speak, with a disgraced individual like Shinawatra, before the Arabs later stepped in.

For anybody who still believes that Hughes is "a man of principle", may I please ask that you read the link below and see how there was "widespread abuses in the administration of justice" from Shinawatra. People were reportedly beaten to death and tortured with hot coals.

I wonder if some of those people who had their hands and feet tortured with hot coals would agree with the view that Mark Hughes is "a man of principle". I'd suggest not.

As Brian Glanville says in the article below, Man City were guilty of a reckless disregard for morality and there was a dark stain over English football when City welcomed with open arms the services of Mr Shinawatra to the club. With Mark Hughes being so keen to hold hands with Shinawatra in the summer, I'd put forward the view that Hughes is also guilty of a disregard for morality and certainly isn't "a man of principle", as Paul and Alan75 suggested on here in the summer.

Link: Man City saga exposes the moral bankruptcy of English football

[T4E]

Happy New Year Smithy.

[Ewood Spark]

.... Hughes was also responsible for Carling Cup humiliation at home to Bournemouth..................

Hey .... I'm probably the last person to defend Hughes ... but you surely can't blame him for the defeat against Bournemouth .... he had only been in charge a day!