[Archived] Hughes Out

[Alan75]

Alot of teams fall behind in a game of football but I don't see them concede as much as we do whilst they're attacking? Today was a perfect example, we fell behind, went forward to equalise and conceded 4 goals, same againts Villa. Everton went behind, they didn't concede 4, bolton went behind they didn't concede 4.

I think we are not defending as a TEAM!

We are not playing as a team.

To many players are playing for themselves... or should should I say after today.....playing with themselves.

[winner]

Hughes is suffering from a lack of finances. It is clear now that in order for Hughes to continue to be a success for us, he needs money to spend on players. The amount of money that we have given to him to spend on players is shockingly low, and he has suceeded in spite of this, until now. With the new TV deal, and the amount of interest in investing in a premier league club, there is no excuse for him to be starved of money anymore! He needs 5-6 quality players before the start of next season, or otherwise I fear that he will begin to fail in his job, and the team performances and results will continue to decline.

Edited January 5, 2008 by winner

[Hannah]

Talk about a knee jerk reaction.

Hughes has not become a bad manager over night.

He had no money at the start of the season did he? When we were winning was it a problem?

I really hope he doesn't read this. The team needs our backing to get through this!

[Presty On Tour]

dear mr hughes

playing tugay 3 times in 6 days?

the ass and tugay in central midfield just does not work.

samba up front with derbs on the bench, it's like the huth tactic.

What on earth is wrong with our defence, must be tempting- i say tempting to give henchoz a game.

[Plastic Head]

No point in calling for players to be included from Reserve or Youth team coz they aren't any better.

He's got to work with what he has.

I suggest...

Work on the defence, get them doing basic stuff like marking centre forwards. Play 5-3-2 or 5-4-1 if need be because we HAVE to stop conceding goals. Also get in a right-back before the month's out.

Abandon wide men coz we don't have anyone deserving of a place on the left and Bentley needs to be on the ball as often as we can. Maybe Reid, Dunn, A Newbuy and Bentley behind Santa or McCarthy up with Santa and Bentley in Mid. We therefore need a centre-mid to replace Savage.

But the main thing is we need to be able to keep the ball and that just means practice and not having players in the team who constantly give the ball away ( Tugay, Mokoena, Pedersen, Emerton) Our possesion retention is nothing short of amateurish at the moment.

[herbergeehh]

No point in going with five at the back, that won't make it any easier. Our players aren't used to playing five back there, it will be even harder than being five in midfield too, which we struggled to cope with. Our problem is people not doing their job, not lack of numbers anyway.

[Eddie]

A quarter final appearance in a cup and being in the top half of the league...six points from the Champions League places....suggest that he has produced the goods this season. Maybe the problem is that you don't know what the "goods" are? What were you expecting when he has spent very little since his time here and took over a weakened, demoralised squad headed for the Championship?

Nobody is too happy at some of the results but, overall, Hughes continues to impress.

Now is the time for the club to back him in the transfer market and see what happens in the rest of the season. We won't go down and will probably be around the halfway mark...maybe even higher if we start pulling our socks up again. That sounds like a successful enough campaign in the bigger scheme of things.

From September to the end of December the amount of money you have doesn't matter, it's all about the squad of players and Hughes, mainly thanks to his own good work, has a good squad of players. The thing for me is that his job isn't simply to assemble a good bunch of players, he then has to get that good bunch of players to do something. Now maybe I'm making him a victim of the success he has had in the transfer market, but when you have a bunch of players that is better than most sides in the league then I expect you to do well, as I'm sure he does as well. I'm not being knee-jerk here, so people can't use that as a way to dismiss me, I may be wrong but I've been saying the same things for a while. This season has not been great, last season wasn't anything particularly special and was only really saved by the FA Cup Semi and the fact that we luckily got into Europe through the intertoto. Now people will come back to that by saying that being in an FA Cup final was special and to a certain extent I agree, but I'll always judge a manager based on the league unless he manages to bring in some silverware, which as of yet Hughes hasn't done and he won't do this year either.

As I said, I'm not calling for him to go, but I just get that feeling that his time may be approaching. I'll back any manager we have through virtually everything, I've never called for one to be fired and I doubt that I ever will, but the Souness experience taught me to always judge them based on how they are handling the side at this moment in time. When I look at this side I look at a bunch of players who often seem lost, who don't know what the manager wants, now that is the biggest problem any manager can have. I hope he sorts it out, he's done some great things, he's a nice man and I would be happy to see him stay here for a long time, but it is the most important position at the club and we can't afford to allow someone to slowly rot when they aren't getting the job done.

We're a few points of the champions league, that's great, but our recent performances have been more like bottom four rather than top four and by recent I mean the last 10 or so games, which is a fairly significant chunk of the season. We've gone out to three sides in cups who we really should have beaten, particularly two of them, and when you think about that in that sort of way it isn't good.

I'm not impressed by Hughes at the moment. He has unhappy players, a side that appears to lack motivation and he doesn't seem to have everyone on the same page, whilst his faliure to address the problem we've had in central midfield worries me. I'll just say it once more though, I'm not calling for him to go.

[waggy]

i think hughes might be looking for another job,the preformances off the last 6 weeks is not what he expects,and if a better job arose i would not be suprised if he threw his hat in the ring

[rebelmswar]

i think hughes might be looking for another job,the preformances off the last 6 weeks is not what he expects,and if a better job arose i would not be suprised if he threw his hat in the ring

Yes I am sure he is just waiting to bail on us. I think he is a smidgen more mature than that.

Edited January 6, 2008 by rebelmswar

[AggyBlue]

He does seem to be falling into the trap Souness fell into, by chasing games once we fall behind instead of believing in the way we are playing and carrying on with the game plan.

[rebelmswar]

He does seem to be falling into the trap Souness fell into, by chasing games once we fall behind instead of believing in the way we are playing and carrying on with the game plan.

He seems to be tinkering during games due to our players playing mostly absolutely feckin gash.

[FourLaneBlue]

From September to the end of December the amount of money you have doesn't matter, it's all about the squad of players and Hughes, mainly thanks to his own good work, has a good squad of players. The thing for me is that his job isn't simply to assemble a good bunch of players, he then has to get that good bunch of players to do something. Now maybe I'm making him a victim of the success he has had in the transfer market, but when you have a bunch of players that is better than most sides in the league then I expect you to do well, as I'm sure he does as well. I'm not being knee-jerk here, so people can't use that as a way to dismiss me, I may be wrong but I've been saying the same things for a while. This season has not been great, last season wasn't anything particularly special and was only really saved by the FA Cup Semi and the fact that we luckily got into Europe through the intertoto. Now people will come back to that by saying that being in an FA Cup final was special and to a certain extent I agree, but I'll always judge a manager based on the league unless he manages to bring in some silverware, which as of yet Hughes hasn't done and he won't do this year either.

You don't seem to have any coherent argument Eddie.

You say you will judge a manager on the league yet come out with this "losing faith" stuff after a cup game. Not to mention that we are in the top half of the Premiership...where we also finished last year...so Hughes is producing "the goods" after all.

The squad needs freshening up that is for sure and it is pretty obvious Roberts and Savage want out. Time to see what Hughes does to arrest the slide but even so it is not often we have so many points after this number of games.

[Eddie]

I was losing faith before, mainly based on league performances, the cup game yesterday added to it, just like the cup run last season somewhat saved it.

If you think the football we have played over the past 10-12 games is good enough then that's fine. If you don't see any very serious problems in the current side then that is also fine. When I look at our team right now I see problems that have nothing to do with how much money we have to spend or even the quality of the players we have, but something that is going on in that team and the way it is being run. I do still believe that Hughes can solve that, but as I watch him make some very strange changes and decisions I am starting to think that maybe he can't.

[Paul Mellelieu]

Stop digging Eddie.

[rebelmswar]

I was losing faith before, mainly based on league performances, the cup game yesterday added to it, just like the cup run last season somewhat saved it.

If you think the football we have played over the past 10-12 games is good enough then that's fine. If you don't see any very serious problems in the current side then that is also fine. When I look at our team right now I see problems that have nothing to do with how much money we have to spend or even the quality of the players we have, but something that is going on in that team and the way it is being run. I do still believe that Hughes can solve that, but as I watch him make some very strange changes and decisions I am starting to think that maybe he can't.

Who did we have available to play right back after Emerton was injured? If we wanted an aerial threat because we had to play the long ball due to the fact that we couldn't string passes together who better to put up front than a proven header of the ball? What other left footed player did we have that could play defensive left and with Gamst being a natural right footer that can somewhat defend who else would we have thrown in?

[Eddie]

I'm sorry, all hail the untouchable Hughes!

[FourLaneBlue]

If you think the football we have played over the past 10-12 games is good enough then that's fine. If you don't see any very serious problems in the current side then that is also fine.

That's a straw man argument. Never a good position to argue from by beginning sentences with "if you".

You said Hughes wasn't and hasn't been producing the "goods" this year. You said you would judge that on the league. Well...we are in the top half, have no concerns regarding relegation and not that far off the European places. How is that not producing the "goods" this year? Where should we be? How many points should we have? If you can define what producing the goods would mean to you then we can ascertain whether those "goods" have been produced or not and, fujrthermore, if your expectations are realistic. You said base it on the league...being almost clear of relegation by January

The team is going through a rough patch and has had some shocking results and performances. However I remember the last time we crashed and burned out of the FA Cup against Birmingham. Compared to then our squad is far superior and we are much better placed in the league. That is down to Hughes.

Nobody is happy losing 4-1 at home to Coventry. Yet we should keep calm heads. Hughes is far more likely to turn it around than Souness was who imploded in his own self-satisfaction. Depending on what happens in the transfer window we could well have a good second half to the league campaign as well.

[rebelmswar]

I'm sorry, all hail the untouchable Hughes!

Don't be upset everyone has views. I just feel he is left in a quandary with the available replacements he has and some of his selections seem odd but I think that if he had better available he wouldn't play the dross. I do not feel like he wishes to commit managerial suicide.

[Hasta]

I was losing faith before, mainly based on league performances, the cup game yesterday added to it, just like the cup run last season somewhat saved it.

If you think the football we have played over the past 10-12 games is good enough then that's fine. If you don't see any very serious problems in the current side then that is also fine. When I look at our team right now I see problems that have nothing to do with how much money we have to spend or even the quality of the players we have, but something that is going on in that team and the way it is being run. I do still believe that Hughes can solve that, but as I watch him make some very strange changes and decisions I am starting to think that maybe he can't.

I agree, although I am confident Hughes knows this and will address issues in this transfer window.

[modes98]

I agree, although I am confident Hughes knows this and will address issues in this transfer window.

I don't think we have the resources to address all the issues we have. You can only get so many really good freebies/cheap buys. Money has to be found to give Hughes the support he deserves.

[waggy]

Yes I am sure he is just waiting to bail on us. I think he is a smidgen more mature than that.

i think hughes must be gutted the way the team are preforming,and he may think he has gone as far as he can with the super blues

[rebelmswar]

I don't think we have the resources to address all the issues we have. You can only get so many really good freebies/cheap buys. Money has to be found to give Hughes the support he deserves.

We could do a raffle and a car boot sale or something.

[herbergeehh]

How about a club sale?

[AndyC]

I don't want to see Hughes go but I do feel he has lost his way in recent weeks.

I can't agree with the decision to sell Savage when the alternatives are a 37 year old and a guy who clearly isn't good enough.

I can't agree with the decision to sell Roberts when it seems plain that McCarthy's heart just isn't in it.

I can't agree with the retention of various fringe players who plainly aren't good enough and will never add anything to the first team.

Testing times ahead I fear.

The Board and Trustees may well soon get the results their continued lack of backing for the manager over the last few seasons deserves.

savage wants to go. if his cash allows hughes to buy sidwell - will you 'agree' with his decision?

roberts is not good enough for a club challenging europe as first choice striker. he's clearly not happy at being 3rd option & we're not competting in enough games to keep 4 strikers happy. but i guess you would rather see roberts running around like an idiot but never scoring.

Benni plays a totally different game, but he gets goals - FACT.

retention of fringe players? it's called a football squad and with our lack of money, hughes does not have a choice.

[AndyC]

I was losing faith before, mainly based on league performances, the cup game yesterday added to it, just like the cup run last season somewhat saved it.

If you think the football we have played over the past 10-12 games is good enough then that's fine. If you don't see any very serious problems in the current side then that is also fine. When I look at our team right now I see problems that have nothing to do with how much money we have to spend or even the quality of the players we have, but something that is going on in that team and the way it is being run. I do still believe that Hughes can solve that, but as I watch him make some very strange changes and decisions I am starting to think that maybe he can't.

eddie - i agree there are problems right now, but every team goes through blips during the season. fact is - we're still in with a close shout of the euro places and we're not playing well. When things start to click again, we'll start shooting up the table

keep the faith people!