[Archived] Mark Hughes - Good Choice ?

[roversmum]

We noticed they were all out warming down pronto after the match. We're usually amongst the last to leave (so Mr Roversmum doesn't get mown down in the rush!) and haven't seen them come out so soon (if at all) for some time.

[Anti Euro Smiths Fan]

A nice and interesting read about Hughesy.

Telegraph Article by Lineker

Thanks for that link Alan.

Interesting article from Mr Lineker.

If I may, I'd just like to widen this topic up to discuss coaching and general management qualifications.

Messrs Hughes and Bowen are both 40-year-old Welshmen. And both of them hold the 'UEFA Pro Licence' qualification.

To be a manager in the Premiership now, you need one of two coaching qualifications - either the FA Coaching Diploma or the UEFA Pro Licence.

The FA Coaching Diploma can be awarded to managers with 10 years or more experience of being a Number 1 - for example Souness and Kevin Keegan. There are also specially run FA Coaching courses which enable other managers to qualify for the diploma.

The courses are usually run by the FA at Warwick University under the tutelage of Les Reed and Don Howe.

As I understand it, there are four main stages or levels to qualify as a top coach.

'FA Level 1 Club Coach' is the UK's most popular course.

Over 17,000 coaches took part last year. This is mainly for those interested in working with youngsters at club or county level. Level 1 deals with the basics like passing and ball-control, dribbling, shooting and heading.

The next step is 'FA Level 2 Club Coach'.

This is a course I'd be interested in undertaking myself at some stage.

Level 2 goes into more detail - dealing with fitness, nutrition and injuries etc, as well as basic coaching principles.

The next coaching step is Level 3 or the UEFA 'B' grade licence.

This 3rd level obviously goes into greater depth than the first two stages, and deals for example, with more advanced counter-attacking and defending strategies.

The final coaching steps are the UEFA 'A' Grade and then the UEFA Pro Licence - which is usually only open to aspiring Head Coaches at senior professional level.

Although to manage in the Premiership now you technically need either a UEFA Pro Licence or an FA Coaching Diploma, there is some flexibility in the way the rules are applied.

Last season, for example, Eddie Gray was allowed to manage Leeds for several months despite not holding either of the qualifications.

This season, Steve Wigley is managing at Southampton, despite, I understand, not holding either of the two major qualifications.

There was much tabloid speculation a couple of weeks ago that Alan Shearer was a leading candidate to succeed Bobby Robson. Alan is not, as yet though, fully qualified to be a Premiership manager. I gather that Shearer has recently been undertaking a UEFA 'B' grade course.

There are perhaps, broadly speaking, six main areas that are vital for Premiership managers these days.

1. Coaching and Tactics

Obviously the most important requirement - enabling you to win matches.

2. Man Management

This was arguably where Souness came unstuck at Rovers.

Although, to be fair, he did have to work with some infuriating characters like Dwight Yorke and Keith Gillespie.

3. The Chairman and Directors

Unfortunately, you have to keep these b*stards happy because they are the ones who determine whether you stay in a job.

Keeping them happy though is not simply just a case of winning matches. Mike Newell for example, won promotion with Hartlepool but was still sacked for off-the field reasons. There are politics involved in football and you have to try to keep the men in the boardroom happy.

4. Organisation and Administration.

Good organisation is vital, allowing you to concentrate on the football. It's important to surround yourself with the right kind of people to help ensure that the club is run smoothly.

5. Identifying Player Targets and Abilities

Very important to have a good scouting network and to be able to identify the requirements of a quality player - not just looking once at a long-haired Italian on video.

6. The Media and Agents

You have to deal with these b*stards as well at times.

If I was a player, I wouldn't want to speak to the media unless I had to. I prefer to keep my business private.

But for a manager, it's a fact of life that you have to deal with the media these days. The interest in the press and media has spiralled hugely in the last 20 years but it's something that you have to try to be in control of.

Similarly with agents - they are part and parcel of the game now and you have to negotiate with them at times.

Time will tell how Hughes does in each of these main areas of management. Fortunately, he got off to an auspicious start yesterday with a win.

Hughes' assistant, Mark Bowen, a UEFA Pro Licence holder, has played under a variety of well known managers in his career, such as Martin O'Neill (at Norwich), Harry Redknapp (at West Ham) and Alan Curbishley at Charlton.

It was a bit of a 'politicians' answer on Monday, when Hughes said: "I have no plans to leave Wales."

He didn't say that on Monday. He was asked about it at the Press Conference and said it was something he said a while ago when he didn't have any plans to leave Wales at that time.........

If that's the case Mum, I stand corrected. Thanks for letting me know.

I was under the impression that Hughes had said those words earlier in the week because it was widely reported in some of the more 'informed' broadsheet newspapers as well as the tabloids.

Just goes to show again the power of the press and the fact that you can't take as gospel everything that's printed.

I hope Mum, that you'll forgive me and you won't send me to bed early without one of your nice milky drinks...

Edited September 19, 2004 by Anti Euro Smiths Fan

[Morph]

Interesting to read Lineker's take on the matter. He and Hughes are very good mates, and spoke several times on the phone before Hughes took the job at Ewood. According to an overheard converstaion between Lineker and the other MotD pundits, Hughes has been desperate to get into club management for a while now, and "would have given up the Wales job tomorrow" to secure the position at Rovers. The smokescreen put out by Hughes the week before when asked about his future as Welsh national manager was just that; a smokescreen.

[roversmum]

I was under the impression that Hughes had said those words earlier in the week because it was widely reported in some of the more 'informed' broadsheet newspapers as well as the tabloids.

From Rovertime 18th Sept: taken from the Press Conference on Thursday

Q:  Earlier this week it was suggested that you were keen to stay with Wales, did something happen to change your mind?

A:  No, there were some quotes in the press which were taken out of context, things I said some time ago.  My feelings about Wales have never changed but all along everyone has been clear about my interest and the Football Association of Wales have been very helpful and co-operative.

AESF - I wouldn't dream of sending you to bed early without your hot milky drink and a (motherly) hug

[Anti Euro Smiths Fan]

Oh, thank you Mum.

You've made me blush.

a hot milky drink and a (motherly) hug

Sounds like the perfect combination to me....

Edited September 19, 2004 by Anti Euro Smiths Fan

[ABBEY]

can i have one too?

[92er]

I've read that Wigley can't get the job full-time until he's got the badge.

[Paul]

It was a bit of a 'politicians' answer on Monday, when Hughes said: "I have no plans to leave Wales."

He didn't say that on Monday. He was asked about it at the Press Conference and said it was something he said a while ago when he didn't have any plans to leave Wales at that time.........

If that's the case Mum, I stand corrected. Thanks for letting me know.

I was under the impression that Hughes had said those words earlier in the week because it was widely reported in some of the more 'informed' broadsheet newspapers as well as the tabloids.

It was reported on Five Live that Hughes had been quoted out of context. I only heard this in one report and every other source took the headline grabbing view, "Hughes to stay with Wales". This of course then gives them plenty more options in the future:

Hughes deserts Wales

Traitor Hughes etc.

Club before Country

The only sporting news I believe these days is on the BBC.

[Ricky]

Thought i would put this in here as I can't see it anywhere else. i was reading Ken Bates' column in the Sun today. He comes out with a fairly interesting revelation, he had reached an agreement with Hughes to be the next Sheffield Wednesday manager if he took over. he claims that he struck a deal in March with hughes and his Agent, Dennis Roach. He says it is a tribute to Mark Hughes that the press never found out and that Mark was good to his word for six months.

Interesting to say the least

[thenodrog]

I've read that Wigley can't get the job full-time until he's got the badge.

Great position for Lowe and Soton to be in. If he is a success give him a contract as soon as he passes his exams, if he isn't then simply pot him at no cost.

[philipl]

A considered review of Mark Hughes' achievements with Wales.

There is no doubt that Sparky turned them from a rabble to a team to be respected. Towards the end his luck ran out.

I still have a niggling worry about his tactical approach. I suspect introducing 4-5-1 at Ewood means he has the same reservations about the Rovers' limitations as he had about Wales.

[John]

I was thinking about Hughes philosophy towards tactics. Much has been made of the 'negative' 4-5-1 system he employs. I think ideally he is a 4-4-2 man but it obviously depends on the players he has at his disposal. Wales have some very good players in midfield and up front. However their back line is not blessed with much experience, especially in depth. hence the fact he likes the pack the midfield and take pressure off his centre backs. The use of Ryan Giggs through his reign is to play him off the front man, like he does at Man Utd in a way. One thing I dont like is Bellamy on the right wing, he played up top last night and looks a real threat. If Bellamy stays right midfield for Newcastle he will get fed up, as he said himself he is crap there.

I think his approach to club management will be different as he can bring players in to a system he thinks it best.

Also- was that his mobile phone Hughes smashed after they conceded a goal, it flew into bits!

Edited October 14, 2004 by John

[92er]

I really don't know how good a job he has done at Wales in terms of tactics or of getting the best out of players,but I think he has a really tough job ahead of him this season.

[USABlue]

I think we can put behind us discussions about what Mark Hughes has or has not achieved at Wales, I stick by my original opinion that his accomplishments were overblown based on one or two good results, hence my lack of support for him becoming our boss.

What we need to be getting on with is what can he do for Blackburn Rovers now. My early impressions are if he can continue to get this team to show the effort and determination he has done early on we have some good things to come. Emerton is a new man altogether, Jansen has a chance at a comeback, he's brought in Djorkfrenchman allowing Bazza a bit more opportunity to play.

Strongly against his appointment, I must say I have been quite encouraged by the improvements, subtle but nevertheless very important. Players body languages seem also different it's all encouraging. It looks like he may have handled MGP's situation correctly if reports of his performance for Norway are anything to go on. Thommo's (hopefully) coming back, Reid will soon be fit (I think all he needs is some games, actually performed decently at RB I thought) So let's see what Hughes can do when he has players to work with every day instead of just International breaks, I for one am a little bit upbeat.

[92er]

Reid has only been poor up to now.Hughes might get more out of him.

[John]

The fact Reid is only 23 is encouraging. Whats vital for him now is to try and stay fit for as long as possible- at least he gives himself a chance then. His career has never got going at all in his time here.

Profile of him for those who had forgotten.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/player?id=5081&cc=5739

[philipl]

Sounds like Amo approves of Sparky.

[John]

Sky were just live at Ewood- saw Sparky walking in. A bit of banter with Nigel Spackman as he walked in.

Back to Amo's comments- looks like a lot of people on this board who were critical of GS training regime, were indeed correct. There is nothing wrong with having old school principles but the game has moved on. If you do not have a pot of cash to spend more attention has to be paid to behind the scenes to try and aid your team as much as possible. You only have to look at Bolton as a good example where the back room staff contributes significantly to the success of Bolton.

Souness wants Duff at Newcastle- firstly I dont think he would go. If he were to, I can imagine the quotes- ''Its really exciting to be linking up with Dean Saunders again'' Eventhough Dean did improve his finishing...

[Eddie]

Funny, it sounds like they only did running, and yet they weren't that fit.

[92er]

The jury is out but agreed that he has a big job to do.

[waggy]

the real mark hughes era starts from today,before wednesday night he was wearing 2 hats,the welsh job and ours.in the last 2 weeks he most probably had only a couple off days with the squad.

i can now see many members point off view,were they stated hughes lack off experince,yesterday he made some clangers with team selection and then with formation after the dismissal.they were almost sounessesque.

i have stated before we need a point a game till the transfer window,then we need the board to back there man.money is tight so players from the lower leagues will have to be brought in.gabbidon-ashton-chaplow-pugh may all be able to do a job for us.

[Anti Euro Smiths Fan]

It's a massive test for Hughes and his coaching staff this season. We've clearly got problems in all areas - defensively, in midfield, and up front.

I suspect Hughes will be looking for some extra firepower in the January window. Last year, Jon Stead's goals kept us up. Can he do the same again this season?

It's vital that we've got someone who can stick the ball regularly into the back of the net.

In this post, I'll be taking a look at the two main coaches that Hughes has brought with him to Ewood.

Our new Assistant Manager Mark Bowen, a Welshman the same age as Sparky, has had experience of being a Number Two with Birmingham, before he fell out with Steve Bruce and was sacked by him.

Originally with Tottenham, Bowen was an attacking left back who joined Norwich from Spurs for £90,000.

Left-back was his main position, but he was a bit of a utility man, able to play in midfield if needed. For nine seasons he was a regular with Norwich, experiencing the highs and lows at Carrow Road.

As well as Steve Bruce, another man unlikely to be on Bowen's Christmas card list is Gary Megson, who had a row with at Norwich over tactics. Megson sold him to West Ham and he later joined the Japanese side Shimizu Pulse.

Bowen returned to England to join Charlton under Alan Curbishley. He converted one of their penalties in the 1998 play-off final against Sunderland, which won them promotion into the Premiership.

Bowen joined Crystal Palace as a coach and followed Steve Bruce to Birmingham as Assistant Manager.

It's unclear exactly why Bowen was sacked at St Andrews.

Some reports said that it was a contractual dispute, others reported that Bruce and Bowen didn't see eye to eye anymore on playing matters.

Bowen's playing record:

Spurs 1981-87 League Appearances 17, Goals 2

(Played under: Keith Burkinshaw, Peter Shreeves and David Pleat.)

Nowich City 1987-96 League Appearances 321, Goals 24.

(Played under: Dave Stringer, Mike Walker, John Deehan, Martin O'Neill and Gary Megson.)

West Ham 1996-97 Appearances 17, Goals 1.

(Played under Harry Redknapp.)

Shimizu S-Pulse

(No appearance data available to me. Played under Ossie Ardiles.)

Charlton Appearances 36, Goals 0.

(Played under Alan Curbishley.)

Wigan Appearances 7, Goals 0

(Played under John Benson.)

Eddie Niedzwiecki teams up with Mark Hughes as first team coach.

He was a fine goalkeeper for Chelsea at his peak, before a knee injury forced his early retirement at the age of 28.

But for the presence of Neville Southall, Eddie would surely have won more than 3 caps for Wales.

He was signed from Wrexham in 1983 for £55,000 by former Chelsea manager John Neal. Eddie was a permanent fixture in the Chelsea side that won the 1983/84 Division Two title, and he became a popular figure at Stamford Bridge, before his unfortunate injury.

In 1985-86, he was in excellent form for Chelsea. It was claimed by some Welsh fans that they had the two best keepers in Britain at the time - Niedzwiecki and Southall.

Eddie first injured his knee in a clash with QPR's Steve Wicks.

Niedzwiecki briefly returned to the side eight months later but his knee collapsed again and he was forced to retire.

Eddie's Playing record:

Chelsea - League Appearances 136, Goals (unsurprisingly) 0.

(Played under John Neal and John Hollins at the Bridge.)

He was briefly Assistant Manager to Ian Porterfield at Reading, followed by a spell as goalkeeping coach of Chelsea. Eddie joined Arsenal in December 2000, taking over the reserve team following the death of George Armstrong.

At Arsenal, he worked with players like Ashley Cole and Jermaine Pennant in the reserve team set up. Niedzwiecki said that he was able to learn a great deal by working closely with Arsene Wenger.

He'll need to draw on all that experience at Ewood.

With our current problems near the foot of the table, it's going to be a huge test for himself, Hughes and Bowen.

[John]

Souness heart was clearly not in managing Blackburn Rovers in the months before he left. He made decisions on a personal basis and not in the best interests of the club. It is rumoured that Souness was actively looking for a new club in the summer and touting his name about.

We are short of a real threat up front and there are too many question marks over all our strikers.

Hughes said on Friday he will get an opportunity in January to bring in players to remedy the limitations in the squad.

Maybe two defenders and a striker are what he is likely to be after. If possible a ball winner in the midifeld. These players will cost cash and I expect the board to give our new manager a decent kitty and i think they will.

Interesting to see Newcastle will be after defenders in January so any chance of possibly getting Wes Brown are low. I would say Gabbidon will be targeted but January will be an interesting month to see what Hughes does. He has to work with what he has but he clearly wants an arrival of 'his' players to boost the team.

Edited October 17, 2004 by John

[Anti Euro Smiths Fan]

A little trip down memory lane....

On Wednesday this week, it was actually the 14th anniversary of the infamous 21 man Old Trafford brawl between Arsenal and Man United in 1990.

Mark Hughes, of course, was part of the United side back then.

In contrast to last season's minor bit of handbags involving Van Nistelrooy and Keown - the 1990 brawl was a full blooded affair, with fists and boots flying for a mad few minutes.

Anders Limpar, a rare player of creativity for Arsenal during the early 90's, scored the only goal of the game that day.

The starting point for the brawl was an altercation between Brian McClair and Nigel Winterburn. Every Arsenal and United player on the pitch except David Seaman became involved in the scramble, with Paul Ince shoving Limpar into an advertising hoarding. Some decent punches were landed by both sets of players.

Observers at the time were left wishing that Frank Bruno could have shown similar aggressive fighting qualities in a few of his boxing bouts...

The following season, when the two clubs drew 0-0 at Highbury, Mark Hughes was sent off in another stormy match.

This weekend, while United and Arsenal are facing each other on Sunday - Hughes's mind will no doubt be focused solely on the important game at Stamford Bridge tomorrow. It's been a tough couple of weeks for Hughes - who has seen Wales lose to England and Poland, followed by the 4-0 'Boro mauling last Saturday.

Some Welsh fans have been critical of Mark Hughes for their results over the last year or so. After previously having been in an excellent position at the head of their qualifying group for Euro 2004, in the last 16 months Wales have had a disappointing run of results.

Hughes's last ten results in competitive matches for Wales are as follows:

Euro 2004 qualifiers

Serbia and Montenegro 1 Wales 0

Italy 4 Wales 0

Wales 1 Finland 1

Wales 2 Serbia and Montenegro 3

Euro 2004 Play-Offs

Russia 0 Wales 0

Wales 0 Russia 0

2006 World Cup Qualifying

Azerbaijan 1 Wales 1

Wales 2 Northern Ireland 2

England 2 Wales 0

Wales 2 Poland 3

Ten competitive matches without a win is poor - even allowing for the fact that Wales are obviously a small footballing country.

I'm hopeful that given time, Hughes will prove to be a good appointment for Rovers, but at the moment the jury is out on how he'll fare with us. Some of the mediocre players we've got at Ewood, together with the limited financial resources available in January, makes it a tough job for him.

It's not going to be easy, but let's hope he can succeed...

Edited October 22, 2004 by Anti Euro Smiths Fan

[chris]

it was something like one win in the last 2 years, it amazes me that the messageboard had such confidence in him, I'm still undecided