[Archived] Mark Hughes - Good Choice ?

[roversmum]

He'll be expected to do seriously better than that at City.....

[Rover4ever]

Thanks Sparky for the 4 years....

What is really getting up my nerves are comments to the tune of "Good move for Hughes, City are a much better team than Blackburn, and are in Europe next season......."

[roversmum]

Par for the course, I'm afraid........

[waggy]

time for sparky to move on,did a great job for us,thanks for the last 3 seasons,now for some attacking football

[Darth Paul]

Well in the aftermath of Hughes leaving our beloved Rovers, an event that most of us probably feared more than any other to do with the Club I must admit I feel pretty underwhelmed and nowhere near as gutted as I thought I would be.

During his time at Rovers Sparky was excellent for us and as he expressed in his press conference at City this morning he was understandably frustrated at the lack of funds made available to Rovers, although I felt his thinly veiled dig at that point was unneccesary and unfairly unhelpful to Rovers in selling themselves to the next boss.

Compare these words to the comments of John Williams, who was particularly professional and gracious about Hughes exit and you realise just what a special club we are. No club in the land conducts its business with the dignity that Rovers does and it makes me proud.

Life goes on, although I would feel that insult would be added to injury should Hughes come back and raid the club, and hopefully measures can be taken to prevent this, primarily by getting in the kind of leader that players would want to stay for, a difficult task given the varying background, nationalities and characters we have on the playing staff one the I think Mr Williams is capable of fulfilling.

Sparky's strength was in his eye for talent and being able to persuade them to come, but his frustration at the lack of progression is ironic to a degree because were he a better tactician we probably would have done. I have very few memories of any amazing performances under him, and we were defintiely steady rather than spectacular. The much maligned Souness gave us much better attacking football and excitement before he started to lose his marbles and stuck Matteo on the wing etc.

I also had it on excellent authority that Hughes did want the Chelsea job, as Nicko suggested, and I think he has made a crazy move here, born out of frustration rather than rational thinking. Sure City may have a larger fanbase than Rovers and a few quid but that is about it. They are and always will be a bit of a joke club and the so called passion of their fans masks that a little bit. I think the highest they have ever finished in the Premier League is 8th, whilst our record dwarfs that with a title win, a second and fourth place, plus is it 3 x 6th placed finishes?

More fans does not mean better, a bit like trying to suggest that Big Brother is better than University Challenge, just because thousands more muppets tune in every week. The window for success there is very narrow and unlikely whereas failure is the opposite, easily achieved and very probable. The reputation of "Britains brightest young manager" could be in danger of taking a serious dent, and all for a job he didn't really want, working for possibly the most disgusting character in the history of English football, Thaksin Shinawatra...

Mark isn't quite as smart as we all thought, and that is why we should all be happy to thank him for his great work and move on with the promise of an even better future - no Rovers manager will have ever inherited a more talented squad than the one we have now, and there is money to spend. If we can keep who we have got and add then all is rosy.

[rover6]

When you consider Souness' record includes the promotion run, Sparky getting a higher win percentage is seriously impressive.

Which just underlines how good Hughes was compared to Souness. He had less money and he didn't inherit some genii like Duff and Jansen.

Am I right in thinking that Souness' last game in charge was the 3-0 defeat to Arsenal? In which case, the first team that Hughes inherited was:

Starting:Friedel, Neill, Short, Gray, Gresko, Emerton, Tugay, Johansson, Matteo, Dickov, Stead

Bench: Enckelman, Amoruso, Flitcroft, De Pedro, Yorke

Edited June 5, 2008 by rover6

[joey_big_nose]

Which just underlines how good Hughes was compared to Souness. He had less money and he didn't inherit some genii like Duff and Jansen.

Am I right in thinking that Souness' last game in charge was the 3-0 defeat to Arsenal? In which case, the first team that Hughes inherited was:

Starting:Friedel, Neill, Short, Gray, Gresko, Emerton, Tugay, Johansson, Matteo, Dickov, Stead

Bench: Enckelman, Amoruso, Flitcroft, De Pedro, Yorke

Christ! Only five decent players in that lot: Freidel, Niell, Emerton, Tugay, Dickov. I can't believe there are 4 left backs on the pitch!

[RevidgeBlue]

Christ! Only five decent players in that lot: Freidel, Niell, Emerton, Tugay, Dickov. I can't believe there are 4 left backs on the pitch!

Short was a great player for us.

Wouldn't class Dickov as good though.

[Hasta]

BBC are reporting that Hughes snapped up a bargain in Pedersen for £1.5mill.

Think they'll find it was our previous trophy-winning manager who signed him.

Not that I'm bitter

[broadsword]

Samba wasn't free either.

[philipl]

There are ways of telling porkies and ways of telling porkies but Hughes' press conference was one dead pan delivery humdinger of a lie after another.

He must have had dental anaesthetic to have kept his face so immobile.

We now know that he and Bowen had a six hour session with a guy who was on his first day in the job, a 15 minute telephone call with the Thai despot and that the Citeh blokes were bricking themselves when Sparky and Bowen were "delayed in traffic on the M40". As though they could not have made a mobile call- there were two of them.

No doubt we will find out that either Williams or Kenyon were talking to them and they'd pulled off the M40 for a long hard think about what they were about to do.

This is an extremely inauspicious start to their time at Eastlands.

[Ronin]

Ol' Frank probably had someone hostage to force them to lie like that

[LeChuck]

There are ways of telling porkies and ways of telling porkies but Hughes' press conference was one dead pan delivery humdinger of a lie after another.

Only the most intense Rovers-spin could twist that preference conference in to what you described.

He wanted a club that matched his ambitions, we clearly didn't, and City are offering him £30-£50 million (depending on who you believe) to build a squad. Sven was given free-reign over who he bought last summer, so I'm sure Hughes will be afforded the same luxury. Even if he does have to put Ronaldinho in his team, I'm sure he won't complain.

Alright he has to finish sixth next season, but if Hughes wants his career to progress then he had to take a risk like this. He couldn't just keep playing the 'over achievement card' with us every year because top clubs won't give a damn about that. The rational few of us on here know he was never truly in the running for Chelsea manager, despite all the press hype, and would never be in line for such jobs without building more success.

I can't believe how many people on here have taken leave of their senses over this, is it to try and convince yourselves that we're not less attractive than City in managerial terms?

Edited June 5, 2008 by LeChuck

[philipl]

So you believe City was first choice and Hughes was never considering Chelsea then?

And Hughes will have a free hand at Eastlands???

Darth Paul has made an excellent and well balanced post nine up from here. Makes far more sense than lechuck's post.

Edited June 5, 2008 by philipl

[LeChuck]

Of course Chelsea was his first choice...actually no, I think Man Utd would have been his first choice...he had about the same chance of getting each. Chelsea could have had him a second if they were serious, it was obvious that they wanted a top manager with a top pedigree from the off.

Man City is the potential stepping-stone between where we are and the very top jobs, he could never achieve enough to reach those top jobs whilst with ourselves because of the lack of budget.

[philipl]

Of course Chelsea was his first choice...actually no, I think Man Utd would have been his first choice...he had about the same chance of getting each. Chelsea could have had him a second if they were serious, it was obvious that they wanted a top manager with a top pedigree from the off.

Man City is the potential stepping-stone between where we are and the very top jobs, he could never achieve enough to reach those top jobs whilst with ourselves because of the lack of budget.

Well in that case you will accept that Hughes was telling one porky after another at the Press conference and consciously adopted the stone face to avoid giving the game away as he was telling the lies.

[LeChuck]

Darth Paul has made an excellent and well balanced post nine up from here. Makes far more sense than lechuck's post.

Hmm...

My point is he genuinely wants the Man City job because there are massive funds available and the potential is there to far exceed where we are now.

Your 'point' is that he's ended up in a job he doesn't want because he was trying to force Chelsea to employ him through jealousy tactics, or however you want to word it.

I'd love you to take those two arguments to neutral fans and get their opinions, I think I know which would win by a landslide.

[LeChuck]

Well in that case you will accept that Hughes was telling one porky after another at the Press conference and consciously adopted the stone face to avoid giving the game away as he was telling the lies.

What?! Maybe the sarcasm passed you. When I said he 'wanted the Chelsea job', I meant it in a way that he wants to be at Man Utd, Barcelona, AC Milan etc etc. It's all well and good wanting to go there, but they have to want you back...Chelsea didn't.

I don't for a second think he wanted to speak to Man City to try and force Chelsea to want him. I think he wanted to speak to Man City because they're offering him an insanely large budget to improve a side that finished 3 points behind us last year.

Edited June 5, 2008 by LeChuck

[Eddie]

Which just underlines how good Hughes was compared to Souness. He had less money and he didn't inherit some genii like Duff and Jansen.

For someone who constantly champions younger players, I would have thought you could at least Souness credit for developing Duff, Jansen, Dunn, Johnson, Taylor, Nissa, Jay and even to an extent Douglas. Turning them all into players who either made us a profit, performed very well or were unfortunate through injuries (a couple of them a combination of those).

[BrianPotter]

Certainly Hughes leaves the club in a better state than when he joined and whoever comes in will have a strong squad to work with (depending upon any departures of course!).

On the whole Hughes did a very good job, especially taking into account the budget constraints. I wouldn't say he did a great job, just good.

The main issue with Hughes teams for me is that if you look back over the last season or even previous season's there always seem to be a number of matches (usually at home) where we simply don't play and drop points. This tends to happen against teams at the bottom of the table and is something that always frustrated me under Hughes, and for whatever reason it never seemed to improve. If we hadnt dropped points in these games then the table suggests a top five finish would have been possible.

I'm not convinced that he will be a success at City, the task at hand and environment are totally different. There will be no requirement to provide world class signings on a shoe string budget - something that is probably his best asset. And if Hughesy thinks Thaskin or the City Fans will stand for lack lustre performances and defeats or draws at home to the likes of Stoke and WBA after spending £40m on players then he's got another thing coming.

All in all, he did a good job for us but perhaps it was time for a change for both parties - just surprises me that he chose City.

For any city fans on here - The following should give you a couple of pointers as to the bad points to expect under Hughes, and sums up my view of some of Hughes negative points at Blackburn. (There are also a number of good ones also, but I dont feel like reflecting on those at the moment )

Bad Points:

(1). Inconsitency: You'll play brilliantly away at Arsenal on Wednesday night, maybe even coming away with a point (or more). You play Wigan at home the following Saturday and turn in a shocking performance and end up losing 1-0.

(2). Set Pieces: Despite having two players capable of fantastic delivery, you will never score from a set piece unless its a direct strike on goal - you will have around 0.1% chance of even creating an attempt on goal from a corner.

(3). Team Selection: A totally random policy on team selection. By this, I mean the following siutations (1): That in one situation a player who has been playing pretty well can suddenly find themeselves with a stint on the bench for no apparent reason. (2): A player who is struggling for form and has turned in a number of continuous below par displays will remain in the team and also rareley be subsituted. (3): Sometimes we stick with a winning side without changes, sometimes we change a winning side. Sometimes we stick with a losing side. As I say, its totally random!

(4): Attacking Options: Against some of the more stubborn teams, particularly those that come to stop you playing, you will run out of attacking ideas pretty quickly with no Plan B.

Onwards and Upwards!

Edited June 5, 2008 by BrianPotter

[trueblue]

My point is he genuinely wants the Man City job because there are massive funds available and the potential is there to far exceed where we are now.

Aye... the LET reported tonight that Hughes has a 65 million pound 'war chest' to get new players with

[des]

i think he will do a very good job at city

[Hughesy]

Thaskin wants top 6 at the least next season.

With Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham and then Pompey, Everton, Villa, Rovers. I think Man City will find that very tough, unless the spend alot more than the reported £50m. Jo is guna cost them £20m and Ronaldinho at least £10m. That leaves them with £20m. That will get them either Bentley or Roque. Looking at thier squad, that wont be enough for top 6.

[thenodrog]

I assume thats once Shinitawara has sold off the entire squad bar richards and corluka.

Worst thing that can happen to Hughes is they get Ronaldinho. He had to mutter something about getting top player sin BUT it's just not his style to work for some clown who is selecting players like a kid in a sweetshop. I'll bet he wants him like he wants an absces up his arse. If Ronaldinho comes there will be an immediate challenge to hughes authority and a disruptive influence in the squad. If he proves ineffective or unfit and a bad trainer how the hells hughes gonna be able to drop him or get rid cos in doing so he'd really be proving that his new boss was wrong? And that unstable fecker is capable of anything.

[RovertheHill]

I can understand some of the emotion on here but to me it had to happen some day. I'm sad to see Hughesy leave but at the time Souness left, I didn't think there was anyone better we could get and I was wrong then, so as long as it isn't Allardyce or McClaren I'm optimistic.

I wish him well but I think Hughes is only kidding himself if he thinks his bosses at MC, the fans at MC, us and the media believe that it isn't Second-Choice City and he had his eyes on the bigger prize of Chelsea. It must have been gutting for an ambitious and self-confident individual to find out he wasn't wanted by the man that counted.

As for Man City being a better club than ours - it isn't. It has more money (for now - Thaksin will get bored/deported/asset-stripped at some point) and it's got a bigger fanbase. But then again, over the last decade so have Newcastle, Leeds, Villa, Everton, Spurs, Sunderland etc etc. And as others point out, what happens when City have a bad patch - which they will? Or don't win a cup? Or don't finish top 6?