[Archived] Sparky - Not A Great Manager?

[JAL]

Finest example of 'Live by the sword, die by the sword' in recent times. Hughes lived and died by it and shouldn't whinge cos of it. He looks like a right smacked arse now. He knows that Prem managers don't get 2 years on average and City managers get much much less. He must have had his eyes wide shut.

Also I'll show my arse on the town Hall steps if Cook doesn't suffer a similar fate. Beats me watching his antics over the past 2 years and his performance yesterday how he ever got the job in the first place. Prob told Shinawatra that he was of Royal birth of something ...... that sort of stuff carries a lot of weight in lots of backward countries. Also it beats me even more how he managed to climb so high up the corporate ladder at Nike. Brown nosing / never promote anybody of quality to the position immediately below you / right place at the right time man .... who knows? One thing for sure it's a mystery to me.

But how much financially richer is Mark Hughes today than say two years ago ?

I'd have thought substantially more, was there not a report that claimed he received a bonus from Rovers after he'd departed.

At the end of this episode, his reputation is still in tact, is it not which allows him the freedom to get another lucrative job.

[philipl]

As Cook spills more beans it is becoming more obvious that Hughes has worked all this season on a knife edge both of impending sacking and probably of political interference/influence on team selections with all the undermining of his personal authority in the dressing room and on the training pitch that implies.

My take is he did a remarkable job at City in the circumstances and his time there should be regarded as a significant achievement.

I see the entire Hughes team has gone from City- it will be interesting to see if they stick together or individuals will go their own way.

[John]

I see the entire Hughes team has gone from City- it will be interesting to see if they stick together or individuals will go their own way.

This article below looks at Hughes shortcomings as a manager, suggests his coaching staff are all 'Yes' men and he should have considered employing an outsider to assist.

Mark Hughes must reflect on Manchester City sacking before deciding next path

[philipl]

That article is a load of cobblers placed by City.

I don't remember those sorts of complaints being levelled at Bowen and Eddie when they were with Rovers. What that piece is really saying is that Hughes' team was fiercely loyal to him and the City sh1t stirrers could not split them in order to pursue their own agendas.

[philipl]

City banning the media

Smacks of "guilty as charged" to me.

[FourLaneBlue]

My take is he did a remarkable job at City in the circumstances and his time there should be regarded as a significant achievement.

With the money he spent and the players he had at his disposal it most certainly it was nothing remarkable that he did.

Tough job but he was lucky not to get sacked at the end of last season.

Big jobs carry big expectations and Hughes ultimately failed to meet them. 1 win in 10 Prem games obviously is not good enough after spending 300million+

[Hughesy]

With the money he spent and the players he had at his disposal it most certainly it was nothing remarkable that he did.

Tough job but he was lucky not to get sacked at the end of last season.

Big jobs carry big expectations and Hughes ultimately failed to meet them. 1 win in 10 Prem games obviously is not good enough after spending 300million+

Spot on - had they stuck with Erikkson & he be given that money then I think they would be a much better team by now!

[Anti Euro Smiths Fan]

"Hughes should never have joined Man City," says Roy Keane.

LINK HERE

I'm not a fan of Keane, but I'd go along with what the Irishman says here. I think it was a mistake for Hughes to have joined City and it ended up smacking him in the face.

He knows that Prem managers don't get 2 years on average and City managers get much much less. He must have had his eyes wide shut.

Hughes was happy to jump into bed with the odious Thaksin Shinawatra before the Arabs came along and he should have been aware of how precarious his job would be at Man City given the massive turnover of managers that City have had over the last 20 years.

Man City have not won a trophy since 1976 and Shinawatra sacked Sven-Goran Eriksson because he said it was unacceptable for Sven to have finished 9th in the Premier League. Hughes himself finished 10th in his first season with City, so if Shinawatra had still been there instead of the Arabs perhaps Hughes would have been sacked sooner - after a year instead of 18 months.

It was a bad career move for Hughes to have joined City. I think he was much keener on the vacant Chelsea job in the summer of 2008, but that ended up going to Phil Scolari and Hughes ended up swimming with the sharks at Eastlands.

Since 1981 Man United have had just two managers - Ron Atkinson and Alex Ferguson. By contrast Man City have had 19 managers since 1981, as follows:

John Bond

John Benson

Billy McNeill

Jimmy Frizzell

Mel Machin

Howard Kendall

Peter Reid

Tony Book (caretaker)

Brian Horton

Alan Ball

Steve Coppell (who resigned after just 6 games and 33 days because of the apparent pressure)

Phil Neal

Frank Clark

Joe Royle

Kevin Keegan

Stuart Pearce

Sven-Goran Eriksson

Mark Hughes

Roberto Mancini

Given the history of Manchester City FC - Stuart Hall calls it The Theatre of Base Comedy - Hughes should have known what he was letting himself in for by joining City.

Finest example of 'Live by the sword, die by the sword' in recent times. Hughes lived and died by it and shouldn't whinge cos of it. He looks like a right smacked arse now.

Agreed. It's also worth remembering that poor old Tony Parkes lost his job with Rovers having read that he was going to be sacked in the back pages of The Sun newspaper, with Hughes not having the balls to let Tony know he was being sacked before the news leaked out. Hughes had made the decision to sack Parkes days earlier, but procrastinated giving Tony the news until it leaked out in The Sun.

A similar thing has now happened to Hughes. Man City made their decision to get rid of Hughes some considerable time before he was actually officially told about it. On the day of City's match with Sunderland, it was on the back page of The Sun that Hughes was going to be sacked irrespective of the result against Sunderland.

What goes around comes around - although I suppose that two wrongs don't actually make a right. It was wrong that Tony Parkes read about his sacking in The Sun and it was wrong that Hughes wasn't informed earlier by the odious Garry Cook and he ended up being humiliated on the day of the Sunderland game.

I don't suppose though that Tony Parkes will have shed any tears at all for Hughes. Tony was treated very poorly by Sparky and may well have had a wry smile to himself when Hughes was sacked.

(I notice also that David Moyes hasn't so far come out with words of support for Hughes. Moyes was infuriated with the way Hughes behaved during the Lescott affair.)

One man who says he's angry with how the sacking of Hughes was handled by City is Alex Ferguson. Fergie has said today: "It was unacceptable behaviour. There is a way to treat people. I do not know how you can do something like that. To be sitting throughout the game knowing there was something going on was terrible."

Link: Ferguson angry with Hughes sacking

[FourLaneBlue]

What goes around comes around - although I suppose that two wrongs don't actually make a right. It was wrong that Tony Parkes read about his sacking in The Sun and it was wrong that Hughes wasn't informed earlier by the odious Garry Cook and he ended up being humiliated on the day of the Sunderland game.

Don't you mean three wrongs don't make a right? Hughes was under contract at Rovers and look around for other jobs for months and was very interested in the Newcastle job. That was pretty much known. So why is it wrong for a club to look for his successor when he is in the job? Would he have done them the same courtesy should the Man Utd job become vacant and he had a chance of it? Would he have resigned while angling for that job?

Of course not to both.

Why the sympathy from any Rovers fan? So they got someone in before they got rid of him? Hughes got a job in before he left us.

It's just the way of football. Think I will save my sympathy for the millions in the country who have lost their job without it being their fault and not received million pound pay offs.

[roverzealous]

He had an impossible task; to make City successful. Not possible.

[Amo]

I don't have any sympathy for Hughes or any grievances with him either, for that matter. However, I think it would have been in City's best interests to give him till the end of the season. Changing manager now could derail the progress they've already made. The problem, of course, was balancing realistic ambition with unrealistic money.

[gumboots]

I don't have any sympathy for Hughes or any grievances with him either, for that matter. However, I think it would have been in City's best interests to give him till the end of the season. Changing manager now could derail the progress they've already made. The problem, of course, was balancing realistic ambition with unrealistic money.

It's not that I feel sorry for Hughes but rather that the way City handled it showed yet again what a classless outfit they are. And then for them to say the owner and chairman are honourable men and wanted to tell him face to face just takes the biscuit. As you say I don't sympathise with Hughes but I am disgusted with the repulsive piece of work that is Cook and find the manner in which their club handled the whole situation totally distasteful.

[LWX]

I don't have any sympathy for Hughes or any grievances with him either

I agree this - as fans we need to realise the managers just can't have same sort of passion for the club as we do and if another club comes in says "you will have a massive trasnfer budget" then it's no surprise he went. He did really well for us!

[thenodrog]

Heard last night that the big divide in the City dressing room came about when it was wet and cold weather and Adebayor and the brazilians made it known that they wanted to train indoors and Hughes and his team made em train outside as normal. Two thoughts....

1. Re: Adebayor. But the rotten apple that someone else has removed from a barrell and put it in yours and the consequences are down to you.

2. I wonder if the most successful club in Prem history across the city would have allowed em to train indoors?

[S15]

If that's true gord then those players are an absolute disgrace, and the City board are prats for not backing their manager.

However, as you say, I have no idea why Hughes went for Adebayor.

[Anti Euro Smiths Fan]

An interesting article in the link below. Jeremy Wilson argues that the sacking of Mark Hughes was entirely understandable.

LINK HERE

[philipl]

Brown nosing Gary Cook that article.

[Steve Moss]

Turkey is sounding out Mark Hughes to take over its national team.

http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Mark-Hughes-to-land-top-international-manager-job-article277865.html

What I especially like in the story is that Tugay was an assistant coach for Hughes at ManC (which I did not know) and he quit when Hughes was let go. The Turks want a Hughes-Tugay management combo.

[Bobby G]

Id like Tugay to serve an apprenticeship somewhere in the next couple of years, cause he would be a crowd favorite as an option for manager.

I just fear it will fail.

[joey_big_nose]

Turkey is sounding out Mark Hughes to take over its national team.

http://www.mirrorfoo...icle277865.html

What I especially like in the story is that Tugay was an assistant coach for Hughes at ManC (which I did not know) and he quit when Hughes was let go. The Turks want a Hughes-Tugay management combo.

Love it. I bet if Tugay does get into management at some point he will be the boss at Rovers. A virtual certainty in my eyes. Unless he is rubbish of course. However the fact that a Souness-Tugay ticket was considered by John Williams, and now Turkey are having a look, suggests people do feel he has ability in this area.

[Hughesy]

It would be great for us in 12-18 months if when Sam's contract is up, he moves on and allows Tugay to take the reigns.

However would people give Tugay much more time because of who he is, if things went t!ts up!?

[Bobby G]

I dont think so. Its purely because of the prospect of relegation.

If he started off well and drifted off half-way through the season, chances are he will get more time, but the other way around would be unlikely.

[G Somerset Rover]

I can picture Tugay now attempting to have a crafty smoke in the dugout!

[LeChuck]

Why does anyone think Tugay would be a good manager? He smoked and pretended not to speak English to avoid the press. A genius on the field certainly, but management material? Not in a million years.

Anyone know how Craig Short is getting on in Hungary? He is definitely one guy who has that management aura.

[Hughesy]

I dont think so. Its purely because of the prospect of relegation.

If he started off well and drifted off half-way through the season, chances are he will get more time, but the other way around would be unlikely.

But what if it all went wrong from the start?

Would he want to lose Legend status?!