[Archived] Sparky - Not A Great Manager?

[Elegia]

When he left Hughes said he had taken Rovers as far as he could. So he moves to city who finished lower than us, have an owner who is of extremely questionable repute and who got rid of Sven after their best season for years. But the clincher is now he is getting paid more than he got here and was promised an unlimited wad of cash to spend on players.

Saying that he had taken Rovers as far as he could is absolute twaddle, he was very astute in the transfer market and bought in some quality players (Nelsen, Samba, RSC etc) very cheaply that would not look out of place in any of the big 4 teams. When he left, he left behind the best squad we have had for a very long time and if he couldn't motivate them to better themselves then he is not the manager he thinks he is.

Arsene Wenger has managed to keep Arsenal in the elite big 4 group by spending very little and fielding a team of very very good young talent. And for me Arsene is the best manager in the Premier League at the moment. When he first went to Arsenal he even managed to (somehow) transform Tony Adams from a hit em and lump it centre back into a silky skilled player.

Bob Paisley was the best manager I have ever seen and he managed to do that in a time when there was little money floating about and motivate his players to beat all and Sundry year in year out. In the early eighties Liverpool were awesome and it is a little known fact that in the seaosns that lowly Brighton were in the old Div 1 their players were paid more than Liverpool's.

Hughes has a very long way to go before he is anywhere near as good as the likes of Paisley, Clough, Wenger and Ferguson and probably will never reach those dizzy heights.

Having said all that I do still think Hughes did a good job here but we move on and so does he. We are very fortunate to be where we are. When I started watching Rovers in 1986 I never thought I would see the club in the top division in my lifetime and while it lasts I am enjoying the ride.

[Ronin]

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

I do think that this is a valid point. Towards the end of his time as Welsh manager I seem to remember he was criticised for playing a very negative style of football and things seemed to stagnate a bit and the results weren't as good as his early reign.

Towards the end of Hughes tenure as Rovers boss, you could see similiar things happening, almost a parallel, as to what happened at the end with Wales happening with Rovers. Granted, the supposed interest from Newcastle in January didn't help matters as I'm sure it definitely turned his head (I don't think he ever dismissed it in interviews at the time) and seemed to lose a bit of focus in the remaining few months of last season.

At the end of the day, he did a good job for us at the time; kept us up (most importantly), qualified for Europe on a number of occasions, had a few decent cup runs, and managed to sign some good players, but ultimately it probably came down to that Rovers and Hughes took each other as far as either could do at the time. I think you could apply some of that to Souness as well (promotion, qualifying for Europe, a cup win, and a few decent players), and both left at the right time for Rovers as JW has managed to find what he thinks to be the next carry on where they left off, and perhaps even push further forward.

[Alex Rover]

City looked good today albeit against a poor West Ham side.

[John]

City looked good today albeit against a poor West Ham side.

Agree, and City had a few players unavailable due to injury. New signing Kompany looks top quality.

West Ham, with their normal injury crisis themselves, looked quite average (sending off did not help them).

[Eddie]

Investment breeds results. We've laughed at them for a few weeks and they may end up in big trouble at some point, but for the moment they've improved their side this summer.

[RevidgeBlue]

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

I'm still recovering from keeling over at the fact that philip agreed with and complimented one of my contributions!

Thank you philip, much appreciated.

[Majiball]

Agree, and City had a few players unavailable due to injury. New signing Kompany looks top quality.

West Ham, with their normal injury crisis themselves, looked quite average (sending off did not help them).

He looks like a bargain at 6M composed and intelligent display, that ball to Ireland was top draw.

Sending off is good for us along with Cole's injury, West ham looked impotent to say the least.

[Anti Euro Smiths Fan]

Hughes embarrassed by humiliating cup exit

Hughes's managerial CV now has Brighton alongside Bournemouth, Coventry and Larissa as being football clubs who've inflicted humiliating cup defeats on his teams.

With the Welsh national team, Hughes's record of only six wins from 26 competitive games is hardly an impressive statistic - Hughes was fortunate that four of those six wins came in the opening four games of the Euro 2004 qualifying campaign, where they came close to qualifying for the tournament.

But ultimately Wales then stumbled and failed at the final hurdle when they had a good chance of qualifying automatically for Euro 2004. In their final two qualifying games they only drew 1-1 at home to Finland and lost 3-2 at home to Serbia. This meant that they faced a two-legged play-off tie against Russia, which they lost and where Hughes was criticised by a number of Welsh fans for his negative tactics.

When Hughes first took over as Welsh boss in 1999, they went through a dire period under him and Hughes came within 43 minutes from equalling Wales' worst ever record of 13 games without a win.

When Mark Hughes took over from Souness in September 2004, Rovers were in a desperate situation and Hughes did well to turn things around at Ewood. But after we finished 6th in 2006, I think things started to go downhill. We finished only 10th in 2007 and the 7th place in 2008 was a bitter disappointment considering we had a good chance of beating Birmingham on the final day and qualifying for Europe.

The team badly let themselves down against Birmingham in what was ultimately a disappointing season, with embarrassing cup exits to Coventry and Larissa. Frankly the football on show from Hughes during his last 18 months or so in charge was often dire and unattractive to watch.

I've been disappointed with signs of arrogance from Hughes since he took over the Man City job. He claimed that he didn't talk about players from other clubs, but he then went on to make a very public pursuit of Santa Cruz.

It's been rumoured/suggested on this messageboard that John Williams and Hughes had an angry exchange of views over the Santa Cruz saga. I hope that was indeed the case and Hughes went away with his tail between his legs. It was a disappointing display of arrogance from Hughes.

Apart from the Mancs at Eastlands, I'm sure that most fans in the country were delighted that City lost to Brighton last night.

[jim mk2]

Hughes 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.

Thank you John Motson.

Next time I need a football opinion I'll ask the cat instead.

[neekoy]

He looks like a bargain at 6M composed and intelligent display, that ball to Ireland was top draw.

Sending off is good for us along with Cole's injury, West ham looked impotent to say the least.

It is great bargain. It is not like he was an unknown though, he is one of the best young defenders in the world.

At least it gives me hope that there are still quality players out there within Rovers reach.

[Parsonblue]

Hughes proved to be a brilliant manager for this club. With limited resources he kept us in the top half of the table and challenging for European football. Under Hughes we had our best run in Europe and he also took us to two FA Cup semi-finals and a League Cup semi-final. In short, he was outstandingly successful on the resources he was given.

Ultimately, as an ambitious professional he wanted to test himself against the best and challenge for honours and, sadly, that just isn't possible at the Rovers. I have no axe to grind with him leaving to take over Manchester City and hope that he can break into the top four. I hope he is a great success with City and would like nothing more than to see him win things at his new club. The financial backing that he has at City now means he can compete with the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal on a level footing although it may take time for him to build the type of squad that can win things.

The success he brought to the Rovers has proved a two edged sword in many ways. People expect us to build on what he achieved and yet the reason he left was because the finances make it impossible to take the club much further. It has certainly left Paul Ince with a difficult job and I suspect that is why expectations at the club are being lowered. Mid-table and a couple of decent cup runs would be success for the club in the present situation.

I suspect that history will judge Hughes to have been one of the really great managers to take the helm at Ewood Park.

[T4E]

Parsonblue, brought to you in association with Amazon - adding ###### annoying adverts to your posts since 2008.

Edit: Hang on, as soon as I posted that all the links disappeared. Is it really that random?

[1864roverite]

I think Hughes might have just become one unlucky manager in a strange sort of way.

Following the turmoil of Frankie's short reign, City get lucky with the Arab takeover pumping millions into a club that doesnt even have its own stadium.

Their debt of £80m is wiped out instantly whilst Frankie pockets a cool £50m in a suit case as he cannot hold a valie dbank account allegedly !

On the last day of the transdfer window, Hughes is golfing and the club sign Robinho, efforts are made to prise away two Rovers players that are doomed to failure.

So, Hughes now has Robinho up front with Jo. A team full of half decent players and a cracking youth set up that has now seen its previous regime replaced by Glyn Hodges and co.

There is no doubt that City have the financial muscle to buy whoever they want. The cries from the new regime are that they want Hughes at the helm.

The defeat versus Brighton has seen that City are not as good as they think they are.

There is a long long way to go before January and the window reopening.

I think that if City are not top 5 come Christmas rumblings will occur and I forsee the City regime looking elsewhere for a higher experienced manager.

There is no doubt that Hughes was class for us but I dont think there is a place for him as City's leader once the new regime is fully in place.

[thenodrog]

Thank you John Motson.

Next time I need a football opinion I'll ask the cat instead.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing remember Victor. I'm sure that when Gunner Graham wrote that Mark Hughes was of a similar opinion.

Have you never written something that you wish you hadn't when circumstances contrive to make you look stupid jimbo? I can't rem when of course but I bet even I've done similar.

[John]

Bruce is reticent on the subject but does admit that the issue with Bowen, who has been key to his fellow Welshman's success, "tainted" Hughes and that was even before Robbie Savage left Birmingham for Blackburn.

[andrew92]

hughes just took yet another swipe at us!!!! he was talking about agents never calling him because they knew he had no money!!!! he just an arsehole!!

[roversmum]

Well he'll be getting fed up with the sound of the phone ringing these days.

[Grabbi Graeme]

hughes just took yet another swipe at us!!!! he was talking about agents never calling him because they knew he had no money!!!!

He was just telling the truth, he didn't have much money to play with at Rovers.

[andrew92]

wigan 1-0 city

1-1 gutting

[Billy Castell]

He was just telling the truth, he didn't have much money to play with at Rovers.

True, but its a bit annoying how he keeps mentioning it. It sounds like he's saying 'I could have won the league if these ramshakle peasants hadn't held me back' with this constant repetition.

[gumboots]

True, but its a bit annoying how he keeps mentioning it. It sounds like he's saying 'I could have won the league if these ramshakle peasants hadn't held me back' with this constant repetition.

I think he's scared stiff about losing his job. The pressure on him must be huge. His bosses want success and they want it quick. Part of being successful is to talk the talk. He's pandering to what they want to hear. They want that arrogance and swagger because it sounds confident. If he keeps saying I'm good and the only thing that held me back was lack of cash, they might believe it and hold off sacking him if results don't go his way, thinking perhaps he might just need a bit more to spend. Buying time is what he's doing. Unfortunately he's doing it at the expense of the club that gave him his chance in club management as an untried prem manager, and disrespectfully doing down a chairman who seems always to have done his best to be supportive.

[1864roverite]

Who really cares about what he has to say about our club now that he has gone ?

If he really thinks that comments like he has said will endear him to anyone else outside of the City set up he is wrong.

I dont think he is scared of getting the boot, I do think though that he might be realising that his current job and City's aspirations and ambitions may be beyond his personal skills, not to mention his back room staff's. I wholeheartedly agree that his new bosses will for now be backing him in public but at the same time, these people havent made billions out of being mugs.

El sheik abdab and co will have registered the loss versus Brighton in the cup, the one real chance for silverware for City this season, as well as the loss to the pie eaters and will no doubt want some answers. City have some interesting games on the horizon and should the improbable happen in midweek and they somehow lose in Europe, then the p45 may not be long in being shown.

Another thing happening is behind closed doors in the youth set up. A seriously well placed City within the supporters association tells me that there has been a mighty bust up between staff from the old regime and the staff of the new regime, resulting in 3 members of staff being suspended from the set up pending an internal investigation. This has not gone down with some parents and they in turn have taken their kids out of the academy very quickly to be offered places at Everton, Bolton, Liverpool and Blackburn !

It is clear, and I think those in the know might agree that Hodges does not appear to have the influence, skills or abilities to run a successful academy. My opinion of him at Rovers was low with the way he went about his business and now it seems its rubbing off on those at City.

Anyhow, cant wait for Christmas Football at Ewood Park.

[Amo]

wigan 1-0 city

1-1 gutting

2-1 Wigan. FT.

[RoyRover]

It is very annoying that he keeps talking about how he had no money to spend at Rovers. His attitude reminds me of Alan Shearer's, it's as if he resents his time with us. Ah well, that loss in mid-week and today will hopefully give him something to choke on. Like Bentley, I now look on Rovers wins as a chance to finish above Spurs and City, just to shove it up them and prove that the grass isn't always greener.

[Ossydave]

More importantly I have Zaki and Valencia in my dream team, not to mention young Jermaine who bagged earlier too