[Archived] Sparky - Not A Great Manager?

[Silencio]

The City job is miles more attractive than the United one.

Like + hundreds of millions vs - £700m more attractive. Ad that is before considering the Ferguson shadow.

City are daft enough to fire Sparky. In my opinion he is doing an absolutely superb job in the circumstances at Eastlands.

Hughes was a very good manager for us, the organisation and professionalism he brought to the club was what made us go from fighting relegation to challenging for Europe. He was clearly excellent in the transfer market too.

I don't think he should be sacked at City yet but I am not sure he is doing "an absolutely superb job" there. We hear he has got City well organised behind the scenes etc etc but is that not something that is almost standard in the League nowadays? It's certainly a pre-requisite for a club with City's ambitions.

The only area where Hughes could really be questionedat Rovers was his tactics and substitutions. It seems the same complaints are being aimed at him these days and I think it's that weakness that might be the undoing of him at City. He has also spent badly there, something which has surprised me. Lescott, Toure, Bridge, RSC and Tevez are, in my opinion, all too expensive and not particularly good.

[philipl]

It is an absolutely superb job:

City have been on the edge of bankruptcy, transfer bans etc etc yet he maintaned dignity and held it all together.

A man who is still at City as COO was actively selling off his squad behind his back without Sparky knowing about it. Both of them are still there but Sparky stopped the rot after Corluka was too far gone to be able to do more than delay it and has won that particular battle for authority.

He has several players in the squad, current and previous owners bought over his head.

He has had to handle a full scale player ego revolt and done so with very few headlines and no dramatics.

City are on course for a Champions League slot in his second full season there.

I doubt there is anyone else in football who could have handled that zoo anywhere near as well as Sparky has.

[Silencio]

Deleted

[Silencio]

It is an absolutely superb job:

City have been on the edge of bankruptcy, transfer bans etc etc yet he maintaned dignity and held it all together.

A man who is still at City as COO was actively selling off his squad behind his back without Sparky knowing about it. Both of them are still there but Sparky stopped the rot after Corluka was too far gone to be able to do more than delay it and has won that particular battle for authority.

He has several players in the squad, current and previous owners bought over his head.

He has had to handle a full scale player ego revolt and done so with very few headlines and no dramatics.

City are on course for a Champions League slot in his second full season there.

I doubt there is anyone else in football who could have handled that zoo anywhere near as well as Sparky has.

What do you think of the signing . of Lescott, Toure, Bridge, RSC and Tevez for the money he spent?

He's a very good manager but I think he is only doing a decent job at City. City fans (who aren't the best source, I admit) say he is short tactically and slow on substitutions, that was his weakness with us but the consequences will be more serious at City with the Arabs spending what they are...

[philipl]

Tevez was a political signing.

Bridge is useless and Toure is iffy, Lescott and RSC will come good as will Agbonlahor.

A better track record with money than Benitez at Liverpool or Ferguson's first decade at Man U although he has not pulled off the outstanding coups Ferguson managed (everyone forgets the millions that went on Manc duds). Possibly only Mourinho and Dalglish have spent a lot of money quickly and better since the Prem started. I'd say he is doing better than Keegan, O'Neill and Redknap have done and hugely better than Keane or Bruce are doing at Sunderland.

You missed out SWP, the ex-Villa midfielder whose name is a blank at the moment, Given and Bellamy.

[Eddie]

So far none of his major signings have really come off. You can say that "they will come good", but their track records say otherwise. Adabayor is a good player, when he cares. He started the season at City wanting to prove a point, he did it; since then the foot has come off the accelerator for him...considerably. Santa Cruz is injured too often to justify 17 million. Lescott simply isn't anywhere near as good as some people though and he certainly shouldn't be valued up with the best defenders in the world (which is what his price-tag puts him at). Given was a good buy, SWP does his job, but after that the City signings all seem greatly overpriced and not the calibre of players top clubs would be looking at to lead the way.

They're a good side now, don't get me wrong, but he's spent how many tens of millions? He's yet to get a world class player. Say what you want about Ferguson in the 90's (who's record was actually a lot better than you are making out) or even Benitez, but they've managed to sign world class players.

[philipl]

Eddie, even you could sign a world class player or two as Manager of Liverpool or Man U!

Not even you could sign a row of beans if you managed a club with the likes of Cooke behind the scenes and a reputation of never winning anything except a third division play-off and coming within a day of a worldide ban on transfers for not paying transfer fees on time.

[Eddie]

And so why hasn't Hughes managed to do it when he can spend limitless amount on transfer fees and wages? I understand that players may not want to move from Europe's elite to City, but from some of smaller European clubs and from outside of Europe is should be possible.

[Silencio]

Tevez was a political signing.

Bridge is useless and Toure is iffy, Lescott and RSC will come good as will Agbonlahor.

A better track record with money than Benitez at Liverpool or Ferguson's first decade at Man U although he has not pulled off the outstanding coups Ferguson managed (everyone forgets the millions that went on Manc duds). Possibly only Mourinho and Dalglish have spent a lot of money quickly and better since the Prem started. I'd say he is doing better than Keegan, O'Neill and Redknap have done and hugely better than Keane or Bruce are doing at Sunderland.

You missed out SWP, the ex-Villa midfielder whose name is a blank at the moment, Given and Bellamy.

SWP is poor, Barry decent and Given and Bellamy very good IMO. De Jong is also quite good.

He is doing a decent job but not an amazing one as far as I can see. Bruce isn't doing badly at Sunderland.

[philipl]

Given (ho ho) the behind the scenes carry-ons at Eastlands, Sparky is doing a fantastic job.

Managing that shower is ten times the challenge Allardyce has at Ewood even though he (sort of) has the money.

[Eddie]

Given is good, but not world class. Hardly took a genius to move for the want-away keeper at a side that looked like they were going down.

[tcj_jones]

Woah, Given is currently the best goalkeeper in the Premier League and Hughes got him for very little. You could count the number of keepers in the world who are better than him on one hand.

I think Hughes's signings have been good, but obviously over-priced. Every team needs a worker like Tevez, while Adebayor has banged in the goals. Bellamy has been an absolute revelation and Roque provides excellent strength in depth up front. In midfield De Jong, while massively over-priced, has done a good job, as has Barry and I like SWP. They have pace to burn going forward and it has been a massive asset for them.

It's in defence where you worry. Neither Lescott nor Toure has been convincing and they paid massive fees for these two. Likewise, Zabaleta and Bridge don't really compare to the likes of Neville / Brown / Evra or Sagna and Clichy or Bosingwa and Cole.

Hughes is doing a good job IMO. Five draws on the bounce is a worrying blip which they'll need to address quickly if they want a Champions League spot. Fortunately for City though, Liverpool's entire squad seems to be crocked at the moment.

Philip, Agbonlahor? Am I missing something?

[philipl]

Yes, my swine flu!

[nick123]

Reading one of today's papers......

Say he was sacked, would we have him back ?

Discuss......im in the yes camp btw

[sweet]

Without a shadow of a doubt.

[champions1995]

I'd have Hughesy back in the future, but I'm fine with Allardyce at the moment.

[RibbleValleyRover]

Reading one of today's papers......

Say he was sacked, would we have him back ?

Discuss......im in the yes camp btw

Nope, he's had his time and i wouldn't take him back.

There have been several moments that have destroyed what respect i had for him, his behaviour over Lescott, condoning Adebayor's stamp and his unsettling of Roque. His mouthing off to the media about players he has an interest in shows great unprofessionalism imo.

I'd never have him back.

[bubblerrovers]

If we're talking in the relms of fantasy with MH making a return i have to say i'd rather Jose Mourinhio

[thenodrog]

Already posted .....

http://www.brfcs.co.uk/mb/index.php/topic/21240-other-pl-happenings-200910/page__view__findpost__p__845102

[1864roverite]

The local supporters are suggesting in an unofficial fans poll from Saturday that they fancy Huudink (sp) as the manager to be rather than Mourinho.

[mode_m]

I would take Hughes back if he came with Roque and Bellamy all for 10 million pounds and after Man City take Kallinic for 9.5million.

....so no.

[RoyRover]

Given is good, but not world class. Hardly took a genius to move for the want-away keeper at a side that looked like they were going down.

There's few better than him. Casillas and Buffon are the two obvious standouts in world football, but even then Given is as good as anything going. He wanted away from Newcastle because he became tired of single-handedly keeping Newcastle up every season! If it weren't for him they would have dropped a long time ago.

I think Man City are a joke and have come to despise them, Mark Hughes and the unsettling tactics that were so evident with the Jolen Lescott transfer. I hope it all fails and they don't even make it into the Europa League!

[leftfooter]

Unfortunately it's time to judge Hughes by the company he keeps.

When City's executive chairman Garry Cook was asked how he felt about working for the former Thai PM and ex-City supremo, Thaksin Shinawatra, condemned by Human Rights Watch as a "human-rights abuser of the worst kind", our Gaz replied: "He's a great guy to play golf with". Garry went on to explain that, "Whether he is guilty of something over in Thailand, I can't worry … I worked for Nike who were accused of child-labour issues and I managed to have a career there for 15 years... Morally, I felt comfortable in that environment."

Bit difficult to imagine our bumbling but noble and rather likeable chairman John Williams giving an interview like that to the tele-wag.

Then along came the homely Abu Dhabi royal family.

The family that founded the Zayed International Centre for Co-ordination and Follow-Up, based in Abu Dhabi, named in honour of UAE President Shaikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. It's aim was the 'funding Islamic Cultural, Scientific research, health and educational institutions'. Yes, that International Centre. The one that in 2004, the International Religious Freedom Report, issued by the US State Department accused of "providing a platform for...anti-Semitic individuals" and "publishing...books with anti-Semitic themes". The same one that hosted notorious Holocaust deniers, featured a lecture by a Saudi professor who claimed that Jews use gentile blood for holiday pastries and published the book that claimed that the strategic genius, George Bush, masterminded the September 11 attacks.

Things came to a head for Al-Nayan when Harvard University's School of Divinity was shamed in to returning a 2.5 million dollar donation made by the Centre to fund an Islamic Studies Chair, after it was pointed out that the Abu Dhabi brand of fundamentalist Islam, wasn't exactly in keeping with the Centre's professed aim of promoting 'cultural, scientific research, health and education'.

Faced with these publicly embarrassing disclosures the government of the UEA (the royal family basically) announced the closure of the Zayed Center.

After Harvard fell through, Man City was the obvious choice, (no me neither). Now of course, with the UAE forced to prop up the banks amid the Dubai financial meltdown, should things really go tits-up in the Emirates, Hughesy might be contemplating the prospect of yet more new employers.

Better start polishing up the CV Mark, just in case.

Apparently Pyongyang is quite nice at this time of year and Kim Jong Il is reputedly far more affable in private than his rather dour public image suggests.

[broadsword]

I would take Hughes back if he came with Roque and Bellamy all for 10 million pounds and after Man City take Kallinic for 9.5million.

....so no.

He'd never come back, and the sour taste his departure left in the mouth means that he shouldn't be welcomed back either.

[Rovermatt]

Given is good, but not world class. Hardly took a genius to move for the want-away keeper at a side that looked like they were going down.

Aye dead on Ed.

Given's clearly the best keeper in the PL, Newcastle went down without him and would have been sucked into the abyss sooner had he left before last season.