bluepeter62 said:
What saga? Elano had a fit of pique because he wasn't being selected and did an interview with Sky telling of his frustration at not playing. Hughes had a word and then said that it was resolved.
Now the only time I have ever seen it brought up is on forums like this by people guessing rather than from anything factual.
I don't believe that Hughes has ever left him out because of his attitude, but because of him preferring the 2 defensive midfielders and the form of Ireland. Now this is obviously open to debate whether he is right or wrong, but at the end of the day its his job on the line.
Personally I don't believe there is any feud between them. As for yesterday, I too thought it was the wrong substitution at the time. Now having reflected on it, I can see why he done it, because both Zabaleta and kmpany where also struggling. The alternative was to bring Petrov on and move Robinho to the right, who I thought at he time was also beginning to struggle having put in a shift throughout the game.
it's not quite factual, but even before the season had begun numerous reputable papers had reported that Hughes and his coaching staff had identified Elano as a problem charector, and a trouble maker. This was repeated ad infinitum in the telegraph, independant, times, guardian, before and after elano's disgraceful TV interview. I cant see anything else being behind this, given the number and extremely specific nature of the stories, for me it was clear that at least one person on the coaching staff was spreading this stuff about off the record, and it flatly contradicts Hughes public attempts to portray himself and elano in a chummy way (calling him, 'Ela', the ridiculous 'bless him' comment this weekend.
And you might like to consider the number of times that elano has been overlooked, and the players who have started ahead of him, how often he gets substituted, and how rarely he comes on as a sub when we have been behind in games. i'm not trying to apportion blame, but there is clearly something in all of this.