[Archived] Sparky - Not A Great Manager?

[Manc Rover]

I think he did a great job at Rovers but the jury is out on him now. He's inherited a pretty average team and wont get the same backing and time he had with us. Remember, after winning his first game v Pompey we didnt win for 9 games! There's no way City will stand for that and press will kill him for it if similar happens. Looking at City, I think they are in dissaray and I'd be amazed if they finished higher than us. What Sparky would do to have the likes of Roque, Nelsen, Warnock and even Dunny.

As they say...the grass isnt greener!

[brfcs5359]

I don't accept football is a rat race and Hughes is 'entitled' to come back and raid Rovers. What comes around goes around. I know City fans say if he is successful there, will he not just up sticks, kit and kaboudle and take the lot across Manchester including City's best players. For all the hard work Williams put in at BRFC, I bet he feels badly let down when he has to deal with a hostile and negative Rovers press, partly due to Hughes antics. Sam Allardyce knows all to well how your CV can work for you and against you.

[den]

I don't accept football is a rat race and Hughes is 'entitled' to come back and raid Rovers.

He IS entitled to make enquiries for our players. What he should have done, after asking JW about the availability of RSC and being told no deal, was back off, or at least keep their enquiries private.

It was irritating to read Gary Cook say only a couple of days ago, that he'd told Hughes that he couldn't have Santa - and that STILL Hughes wanted to keep trying. Still Man City found fit to put that to the press as well.

Very, Very disappointed in Hughes treating our club this way. I have no respect for him any more, he's no better than any other football mercenary IMO. TBH, I never thought he came over as having any real respect for rovers, even when he was here. Past events, [wanting out of the club since last year] have proven that.

[Parsonblue]

I find it sad that as soon as someone leaves the Rovers we have fans who are only too ready to vilify them and ignore any contribution that they made to the club. Hughes did a wonderful job for us as a manager. Two years of European football, two FA Cup semi-finals, a League Cup semi-final and constantly challenging in the top half of the table and all on a limited budget. If Paul Ince does half as well I will be happy. I was sorry to see Hughes and his backroom staff go but can understand why he did. I'm just grateful for the success that he brought to the club.

[CAPT KAYOS]

i like hughes as a manager,bit negative and he did his time with us,LET IT GO

Is this not a little hypocritical if I may ask Waggy considering your turn on Friedal?

About the same sort of scenario in my book.

[incecticide]

Good point made on page one that the club had taken Hughes as far as it could as well as the other way around. It was an excellent decision by Hughes to leave knowing that he couldn't acheive anything more with the club, be that because of his limitations as a manager or ours as a club. Back to back top 6 finishes is about the best Rovers can hope for and when you hit the ceiling, you inevitably bounce back down. I think Hughes was angling for the Newcastle position before Keegan took the job and fair play to him for wanting to further his career somewhere that has greater resources. Staying here as Rovers fell away would only harm his reputation and his chances of one day managing United.

[den]

I find it sad that as soon as someone leaves the Rovers we have fans who are only too ready to vilify them and ignore any contribution that they made to the club.

No-one's done that have they? Some have commented on his behaviour since he left, which is fair enough.

[John]

Hughes did well for us and we did well for him.

He has moved on and personally I have a lot of respect for him.

He's moved on and some of us should try to do the same (can't help but have a little snigger at Man City's financial troubles though).

[waggy]

Is this not a little hypocritical if I may ask Waggy considering your turn on Friedal?

About the same sort of scenario in my book.

tbh i was relieved when sparky left,he had done his time with us,outgrew us.with friedal we rescued his career,made him the keeper he is today,he spouted off about loyalty and left

[yoda]

What is blinding obvious to me is that Hughes was a good manager at an exceptional football club and got a bit stale and sought to further or freshen up his carreer by taking the money option, it has all gone wrong for him, never mind.

BRFC will be around longer than any one manager or player

[Wiggy]

He IS entitled to make enquiries for our players. What he should have done, after asking JW about the availability of RSC and being told no deal, was back off, or at least keep their enquiries private.

It was irritating to read Gary Cook say only a couple of days ago, that he'd told Hughes that he couldn't have Santa - and that STILL Hughes wanted to keep trying. Still Man City found fit to put that to the press as well.

I hear that Hughes has been ringing JW annoyingly regularly about RSC and not taking no for an answer, which has resulted in angry words being exchanged. Hence, Gary Cooks comment about being told nothing doing " in the bluntest possible terms".

[rover6]

Mark Hughes (for all his love of Paul Gallagher) is a dramatically superior manager than Souness.

Nearly all managers have their justified critics. I remember Everton fans nearly turning on Moyes' negative, direct football. Man U fans have had their disagreements with Alex Ferguson's strange ideas (Darren Fletcher).

In fact, I think Arsene Wenger is the stand-out boss who has nearly always retained the near full support of their fans. Whilst, he hasn't won the trophies that maybe he should have, their fans have generally forgiven him because of the attractive football his team usually plays and his successful foresight in the transfer market.

The only great managers in the Prem, imo, are Wenger and Ferguson. Not sure about Scolari because I don't know enough about his career.

[LeChuck]

Then Sav was sold, which was fine, but we didn't get anyone in and then over the hill came the figure clad in armour upon a white steed, Johann Vogel

That wasn't Hughes' fault though. Every interview he did in January he looked utterly despondent, and often bemoaned the lack of money available to him. It was obvious when the Newcastle job became available that he wasn't that happy here at all.

The fact that Vogel was signed after the transfer window shut shows that Hughes must have been trying for other targets when the window was open, but eventually had to settle for Vogel just to get the numbers up.

Things had gone very stale on the field with Hughes, so in that sense Ince adds a bit of excitement. Ince stills terrifies me in the transfer market though, he's got to prove he can adequately replace players when they leave and also strengthen other areas. Hughes showed that in abundance, every time we sold someone he brought in some at least their equal...usually better.

[CAPT KAYOS]

tbh i was relieved when sparky left,he had done his time with us,outgrew us.with friedal we rescued his career,made him the keeper he is today,he spouted off about loyalty and left

Agree on the Hughes aspect Waggy , but feel Freidal earned his stripes with us and deserves a bit of respect.

Don't think he means bad of Rovers in any way despite what you read or hear - I feel there is more behind his leaving than what is being revealed.

[DeadlyDirk]

On one hand I believe Hughes took over at a good time, the only was was up for us, unless there was a complete disaster. However he did excellently for us, whether or not someone else could have done the same job is neither here nor there, the fact is Hughes pushed us back into being a top 8 side, getting into Europe and doing well in the cups from time to time.

As for Hughes at City, give the guy a chance, the amount of backroom trouble he has had to deal with there would unsettle any team. I don't rate City particulary highly, I hope they finish below us and I have no doubt that Ince is going to prove to be a great replacement for Hughes but still at least give Hughes a change at City before you judge how good he is.

[philipl]

1864 and Revidge Blue are the two outstanding contributions on this thread.

Hughes is a very good young manager whose weaknesses he showed towards the end of his Wales tenure were beginning to show at Ewood.

He made a monumental judgement error in going to Man City and is now quite likely to be behind a lengthy list when big 4 jobs fall vacant. In fact his best career move now would be to engineer a move to a good Liga club in Spain.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

You can add into that - very fortunate wins against Sunderland, Derby and Newcastle and poor performances against Fulham, Boro (H) - just to name a few

Whilst Hughes improved us, he never actually did anything amazing - yes we had cups runs - but never made it to a final or won anything. Yes we got in Europe, but not for long. Yes we finished 7th last year, but we were poor whilst some how securing it. He also lacked the motivation skills needed for the likes of Gamst and co and also against the poor teams we always dropped to thier level.

Hopefully Ince will do better.

IMO this is unbelievably harsh on Hughes. IF he had a huge budget to mould a side - then I would agree with you - but there were far "bigger" clubs who spent far more money than us with far worse records.

Given Rover's status, fans base, and budget Hughes did an unbelievable job. But like Curbishley (who did a similar good job at Charlton) this doesn't necessarily make them into a manager that will win Cups and Championships.

Its horses for courses - Souness did a good job with a relatively big budget - but struggled when our budget lowered. Nobody will ever know whether Hughes would have done any better if we had splashed the cash last January. Buying damaged goods, or players with points to prove needs different motivational skills to those buying top players and getting the best out of them. Maybe that is where we went wrong last season - Hughes had rehabilitated most of the squad who had started to realise their potential - at this point Hughes seemed to lack the motivational skills and tactical acumen to get the best out of one of Rover's best squads for a number of years.

For us, and our circumstances at the time - he was a great manager - but maybe (as with Souness) now was the right time to move on (both for Hughes and the club). As with Souness we have managed to do this without sacking the manager - but actually getting compensation. For me, Ince still has it all to do - but maybe we needed to freshen things up anyway.

[philipl]

Sparky is definitely not a great manager according to his current boss, Gary Cook.

[Darth Paul]

On recent evidence I would suggest that a manager is only as good as the club which he is at...

[Ozz]

From a blog somewhere..

"As Cook admits, the former Blackburn manager has simpler tastes. "Mark is adamant he wants Premier League experience because that is what let us down last season. Mark's a homegrown lad, very old school. He'd rather sign players he knows, even overpay. That's an endearing piece of what he's all about. He doesn't like the unknown because it takes him out of his comfort zone."

Though that about Hughes for some time. Sometimes wondered even if he was given £10 million for a player while at Ewood if he would have the balls to chuck it at one player.?

[Alan75]

From a blog somewhere..

"As Cook admits, the former Blackburn manager has simpler tastes. "Mark is adamant he wants Premier League experience because that is what let us down last season. Mark's a homegrown lad, very old school. He'd rather sign players he knows, even overpay. That's an endearing piece of what he's all about. He doesn't like the unknown because it takes him out of his comfort zone."

Though that about Hughes for some time. Sometimes wondered even if he was given £10 million for a player while at Ewood if he would have the balls to chuck it at one player.?

Strange comment He'd rather sign players he knows,

Nelsen, Samba, Santa. All unknown gambles.

[DP]

I think he was a great manager for Rovers. Simply look at the resouces he had and where we were at the start and at the end. Bottom of the table without a decent striker and finish up with a top ten team with 2 of the most sought after players in the premiership all assembled on a shoestring.

Compare that to Souness, and while we had a lot of dross in our squad and we were in the bottom half of Div 1, he must have felt like all his Christmasses had come at once when he saw the talent that was in there as well as the additional backing he had from the board.

Don't get me wrong, I think those first 2 full seasons under Souness were 2 of my most enjoyable seasons ever, and I did enjoy watching our football more under Souness than Hughes. But when I compare the resources they had to work with, I just think Hughes pulled far more gems out of the bag, and more importantly when he lost his appetite for it he didn't press the self destruct button and for me kept his dignity right until the end.

[Roar of the Rover]

Strange comment He'd rather sign players he knows,

Nelsen, Samba, Santa. All unknown gambles.

I wouldn't put Santa but Nelsen, Mokoena, Samba were all unknown gambles when we did sign them. City for relegation? Or are they "too good to go down"?

[1864roverite]

To be mentioned in the same paragraph as The Rev Blue is HUMBLING

[rover6]

Hughes is a very good young manager whose weaknesses he showed towards the end of his Wales tenure were beginning to show at Ewood.

With all respect Philip, you are predictably revisionist.

I don't believe that in all your posts during the Hughes tenure you offered a single meaningful criticism of the management.

When it becomes de rigueur to find fault with Hughes you start talking about weaknesses. To be fair, I don't think you're the only one but I do get a little fed up with people who change their tune and put on a pretence of being consistent AFTER a popular manager/player has left.

I challenge you to offer your criticisms whilst the subject is still at Rovers.