[Archived] Sparky - Not A Great Manager?

[Presty On Tour]

That's not the way your original post came over.

Sounds like rather a blithe statement: "I would expect us to bounce straight back ..." - the Championship is very competitive and we are just another team.

Ince doesn't have any experience at Championship level, there's no way of telling how he'd do at it.

Go back to smoking your bananas.

I'm confident if we went down to the championship next season, Ince would no longer be in charge.

I'm also confident that we won't go down this season, there's a lot of football to be played between now and May.

[BuckyRover]

I can categorically say I never felt the need to smoke a banana. Has anybody in the world ever tried this?

[Tris]

I can categorically say I never felt the need to smoke a banana. Has anybody in the world ever tried this?

You really shouldn't have asked ...

[Jan]

I'm confident if we went down to the championship next season, Ince would no longer be in charge.

I'm also confident that we won't go down this season, there's a lot of football to be played between now and May.

I am equally confident that for the second point to happen, the first must also have happened.

[CrazyIvan]

I am equally confident that for the second point to happen, the first must also have happened.

We shall see shan't we?

[philipl]

Hughes remains a good Manager.

At present he has a wierd set-up at City; two forwards bought for some £50m on his watch over whom he had no say- both look like they can be played out of Prem games.

A defense into which he has made a couple of recruitments neither of which are looking terribly good but from which Corluka got sold out from under him.

A squad he inherited which showed relegation form the last half of last season aand which continue in a similar vein this season.

Hughes' one good move has been the resurrection of SWP.

The behind scenes politics of City have been bizarre in the extreme. They were facing a financial melt down until Thaksin found ADUG but being the richest club in the world for all of ten hours on the last day of the season isn't exactly much practical use. Now the Thaksin appointees (Cook, Hughes) are now completely stranded with their sponsor not able to return to the UK.

Unless Hughes turns things round dramatically quickly and if the Israeli super agent and Joorbachian are still around at Middle Eastlands, I think Hughes' tenure is probably measured by the time it takes those two to find an appropriately glamorous successor.

[gumboots]

Hughes remains a good Manager.

At present he has a wierd set-up at City; two forwards bought for some £50m on his watch over whom he had no say- both look like they can be played out of Prem games.

A defense into which he has made a couple of recruitments neither of which are looking terribly good but from which Corluka got sold out from under him.

A squad he inherited which showed relegation form the last half of last season aand which continue in a similar vein this season.

Hughes' one good move has been the resurrection of SWP.

The behind scenes politics of City have been bizarre in the extreme. They were facing a financial melt down until Thaksin found ADUG but being the richest club in the world for all of ten hours on the last day of the season isn't exactly much practical use. Now the Thaksin appointees (Cook, Hughes) are now completely stranded with their sponsor not able to return to the UK.

Unless Hughes turns things round dramatically quickly and if the Israeli super agent and Joorbachian are still around at Middle Eastlands, I think Hughes' tenure is probably measured by the time it takes those two to find an appropriately glamorous successor.

SWP will be on his way out if his dad has his way if it's Mourinho they bring in.

[gillibrand]

Hughes was good at managing with a tight budget, but having limitless cash is a little above his capabilities to utilise.

[gumboots]

Hughes was good at managing with a tight budget, but having limitless cash is a little above his capabilities to utilise.

Actually he's seen very little cash yet so we don't know that do we?

[broadsword]

Ribinho and Jo cost over 50 million quid for a start.

[gumboots]

Ribinho and Jo cost over 50 million quid for a start.

And he chose to buy them? I didn't say cash hadn't been splashed - just that I don't think Hughes had a great deal of say in it. He's managing players he'd not have seen as priorities. He couldn't really turn them down but he probably had other players and positions in mind himself. couldn't spend Shinawatra's money. Arabs wanted high prestige players.

[broadsword]

It's his job to pick the team (presumably ...), select tactics, formations, provide coaching etc for a team that cost tens of millions to assemble.

How do you know who he's chosen to buy? I think you're all too willing to make excuses for him.

he hasn't quit, so presumably he's happy enough with the players signed.

[philipl]

It's his job to pick the team (presumably ...), select tactics, formations, provide coaching etc for a team that cost tens of millions to assemble.

How do you know who he's chosen to buy? I think you're all too willing to make excuses for him.

he hasn't quit, so presumably he's happy enough with the players signed.

Jo was already done before he was appointed and Berbatov was his pick but that got switched to Robinho by City's fixers at the last moment.

More critically, Hughes did not want to sell Corluka but that happened behind his back and still went through despite Hughes having his famous bust up over who runs what at City.

[CAPT KAYOS]

SWP will be on his way out if his dad has his way if it's Mourinho they bring in.

Quick everybody mail Mourinho with the delights of Citeh ... a certain team needs a right sided winger.

[Exiled in Toronto]

I hope Williams would be more concerned with finding someone to prevent us going down, thank you very much.

He had, by his own admission, 7 months to think about a replacement for Hughes. I don't know why people think he's going to do any better in about two days should he pull the trigger.

Golden rule of business - when appointments don't work out this quickly, the problem usually lies with the bloke doing the appointing.

[philipl]

Difference of opinion between Hughes and ADUG?

We have to hope fervently that Hull City stop their downwards slide this week-end and that City will continue to struggle. Hughes getting fired by City is just about the only chance we have of hanging onto RSC.

[Rover4ever]

The billionaire businessman who set up Manchester City's takeover has openly questioned Mark Hughes' plans for the January transfer window, when the manager seems determined to bring in players of high-level Premier League experience rather than taking the more exotic route of marquee signings such as Robinho.

Dr Sulaiman Al-Fahim has devised his own list which, he says, is available to the club's owner, Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, if he requests it. Al-Fahim remains a close ally of the Abu Dhabi royal family and was entrusted with fronting their bid to take control of Eastlands.

"My vision is rather different," he said of Hughes' plans to target, among others, the Blackburn Rovers striker Roque Santa Cruz, Chelsea's second-choice left-back Wayne Bridge and Portsmouth's Lassana Diarra. "I decided to choose a club where there was the possibility of getting big names. I knew what was in my imagination. I put my vision forward ... but it is the role of the manager and the chairman to take it forward now. I was only asked to find the opportunity and close the deal, rather than go into the detail."

Al-Fahim has been marginalised since his claims in September that City would try to sign Cristiano Ronaldo, Fernando Torres and Cesc Fàbregas, as well as predicting that the club's unprecedented spending power would see them break into the top four this season. Nonetheless, he remains a part of Abu Dhabi United Group and it is hardly a vote of confidence in Hughes that someone in this position should, in effect, break ranks.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/no...manchestercity1

[almuncle]

Seems Hughes has added Warnock to his Christmas list too.Wonder if that might unsettle him again.

[gumboots]

Seems Hughes has added Warnock to his Christmas list too.Wonder if that might unsettle him again.

It'll go on until the transfer window slams shut and then start again for the summer. This morning they were suggesting Roque could go to Villa because "when Carew can't play Villa need another centre forward" Why he'd want to go there as understudy to Carew I don't know, but it's the kind of comment we just have to get used to and our management have to keep saying no to.

[DingleBaiter]

He didn't look his normal composed self in his press conference today on SSN - them two articles probably explain why.

Good job he'd gone grey before he took the City job - it's just been one thing after the other it seems for him since Day One when Cooke revealed they'd told Hughes they were signing Jo. Then all the Dr Evil kerfuffle, the two 'mystery sales' of Corluka & Ireland, the ADUG takeover, then the Berbatov/Robinho shenanigans etc

Same old City....

[Billy Castell]

It'll all go wrong at the council house. Hughes will be sacked, and we'll probably end up with a more extravagant version of Vladimir Romanov of Hearts. They may win FA Cups and maybe a UEFA Cup, but the revolving door with players and managers will mean they'll never be a true contender.

[RibbleValleyRover]

The owners will want champions league qualification this season, especially if they shell out a lot of cash in January.

I can't see Hughes or any other manager giving them that this season, so its going to be the chop for old Sparky.

[Billy Castell]

Oh well, he can take over Watford, or Swindon if he gets the chop soon.

[tonygreenbank]

Is Chop Hughesy a Dubai dish?......I`ll get my coat!

[92er]

Is Chop Hughesy a Dubai dish?......I`ll get my coat!

It's certainly as well they didn't have Souness as their manager!!