Difficult Time For Hughes

[Alan75]

The last few days must have been difficult for Wales manager Mark Hughes, who on one hand wants to lead his country to World Cup Qualification and on the other wants to full fill his dream of managing a premiership team.

Only yesterday Hughes stated "I'm a Welshman who's as proud today of being national team manager as I was on the day I was appointed.”

But the lure of premiership management appears to be gaining momentum as this afternoon Hughes’s agent Dennis Roach stated.

"Mark has a contract with Wales which he totally respects."However, it has always been his ambition to manage in the Premiership if the right job at the right club came along, and there is a clause in his contract which allows for that to happen.

"Mark had two great years at Ewood Park as a player so Blackburn is a club which is close to his heart, and therefore this is the kind of job that would interest him.

"The people at Blackburn would have to go through the right channels with the Welsh Football Association but if they wanted to talk to Mark then he would be very interested to listen."

Now I wouldn’t go so far as to suggest that this site had inside information, however just two days after the shock departure of Graeme Souness, a news editorial on this site reported

“If the betting odds are to be believed, then former Rovers striker and current Wales manager Mark Hughes is favourite to take over from Souness,” and the editorial went on to suggest

“The major stumbling block in Hughes's appointment is his patriotism and commitment to gaining World Cup qualification for Wales, who play Northern Ireland tonight and then face England and Poland next month. This could reflect on John William's comment that he wont be rushed into anything, bearing in mind that after the 13th October, Wales and Hughes will have a five-month break, before the next WC qualifying game. A period in which he would be able to bed himself in to the Ewood hot seat”

At the present time there is uncertainty on whether Rovers have already been in contact with the Welsh FA, in order to make a formal approach for their manager. What is now certain Hughes is now awaiting the call from Rovers, and maybe Rovers will dangle the carrot to allow Hughes to continue his national duties on a part time basis until after Wales’s World Cup qualifying games against Poland and England.