[Football] Excellent Guardian piece demolishing Mark Hughes

[NooBHA]

Matthew Etherington was on 5 Live the other day sticking the boot into Hughes. He called him an arrogant manager who only worked on the attacking side of the game and never defense. Hughes is one of those managers that you wonder how he keeps getting a job - a constant on the manager merry-go-round.

Quite a loose term that one. He does very little of the coaching. He goes into clubs with an entourage of about 10 people who do all the work. Maybe if he did any of the work we could lay the blame at Hughes' door. I think his failings are that he isn't hands on and maybe he should do some of the work and perhaps just perhaps you could levy him a failing Manager and coach. Billy Davies and Kevin Keegan apparently were similar. Davies famously, it was reported that he used to only turn up at Nottingham Forrest on the Thursday afternoon for his first visit of the week unless there was a midweek match

I don't really understand clubs who employ Managers and then sit back and pay them for the job that others are doing. You might just as well wheel out a PR guy every Saturday to do the interviews and let the Chairman pick the team and do the team talks. Simon Jordan would be in his element is that was the case.

 

[Acker79]

Except that we the fans dont get the same platform to voice that opinion

I could probably point to modern day social media, message boards, blogs, the reliance of news outlets on twitter and facebook comments for articles, the rise of Fan TV on youtube and the like, along with the old favourite 'the call in' to point to the very large platform afforded to fans. But that would be largely irrelevant. The hypocrisy exists irrespective of the comparative outlets available.

 

[LamieRobertson]

I could probably point to modern day social media, message boards, blogs, the reliance of news outlets on twitter and facebook comments for articles, the rise of Fan TV on youtube and the like, along with the old favourite 'the call in' to point to the very large platform afforded to fans. But that would be largely irrelevant. The hypocrisy exists irrespective of the comparative outlets available.

Yes..but he's on the biggest stage and I think his comments reach a heck of a lot further than your average fan....and I think most fans want more than most is consistency ..even if it involves their own team.
I would add that we are also talking about a manger who has rightly gained a reputation of being a serial whinger

 

[Iford Albion]

Other opinions about Barry Glendenning are available among the football writing fraternity.

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The Guardian Is desperate for cheap copy so publishes illiterate drivel. Mark Hughes is also rubbish at his job.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

A very interesting comment in the section underneath:

"When Mark Hughes replaced Tony Pulis at Stoke most of the fans felt totally crestfallen, but after a few weeks most of us came round to the notion of Hughes' potential as the "next step" for the club. His illustrious playing career certainly helped Sparky to attract the big names and he is connected with many big clubs, including Barcelona, where he made shrewd acquistions.

And I must say he also did a fantastic job with Pulis' plodding, aging squad. The football got better and better, culminating in what must be Hughes managerial zenith and the 6-1 drubbing of Liverpool and then taking Man City to school with a false nine featuring pre-injury Bojan, Arnautovic and Shaqiri up front. Stuff we've never seen before at Stoke, I mean putting 6 past Liverpool?

Add to that three consecutive top 10 finishes (something that Pulis never managed to do) in his first three seasons and Sparky had stockpiled so much credit in his managerial role that we all felt that this was a guy with the Midas touch and the start of a 20 year dynasty. Happy days.

And that, was exactly when the problems began. The signs were there in the last of those 9th placed finishes and what came after was a season of far too many 4-0 drubbings from far too many sides. Our defence went from one of the best in Europe under TP to the worst in the European top flight under Sparky.

Then he got to work on what must stand as the most wasteful spending spree of business in recent Premier League history; a spending that was perhaps only eclipsed by the dross that he bought in whilst at QPR. All this culminated in £18m for Kevin Wimmer, £12m on Saido and the disastrous Jesé loan from PSG.

This was when the bemoaning of bad luck and awful refereeing became his central pillar of defence for the horrible football on display. The fans recognised this excuse making and turned very quickly with all that nonsense going on.

It was only when Paul Lambert came that it became clear what a cluster**** Sparky had created right at the heart of our club. Insubordination, tardiness, in-fighting and worst of all an inability to defend - even with Jack Butland and the experience of Ryan Shawcross in the heart of that once excellent central defence.

The problems Mark Hughes has left at the club are still being felt. We are finding the Championship a little more difficult that perhaps we had all thought, the wage bill is eye-watering and the talent we have out on loan is staggering.

The way he ripped into that young ref last weekend was unacceptable in my view.

His current whinge-laden Southampton tenure must surely mark the end of the road for Mark Hughes in the top flight. He's been totally found out this time and I'm willing to bet his next job will not be in the UK.

Good riddance."

 

[Mr Banana]

I can imagine Barry unashamedly not sticking around in inclement interviewing conditions. Enviably great writer, though.

I was working with a reporter in Ukraine last night who kept making typos because his fingers were nigh-on frozen off. Never heard back from him about post-match interviews, poor chap.

Was thinking Mark Hughes is the sort of manager Dick Knight would perform a coup-like swoop for if he was sacked now and we were still on the rise from the depths at Withdean. Low-stock, big-name manager pops up at plucky Brighton.

 

[Easy 10]

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The Guardian Is desperate for cheap copy so publishes illiterate drivel.

Now that truly IS rubbish. The Guardian has some of the best sportswriting out there with the likes of Ronay, Glendenning, Wilson, Conn and Taylor. Not to mention Marina Hyde, who's columns are consisitently excellent.