bizzbo
Well-Known Member
Corky said:
cook will want to keep a million miles away from this, but I think it's perfectly possible he wasnt a major player in the decision. maybe in the execution.
out of Cook, Marwood, Khaldoun I would think that cook was the least active in making the case for the change. He would probably keep his options open.
anyone fancy a bit of informed speculation?
going from what's been reported, my take is that Marwood and Hughes have clashed repeatedly. not a big surprise, as I get the feeling that marwood was never overly impressed by some of Hughes' methods and targets, and I get the feeling that hughes was never going to get along with someone setting limits on what he could do. wherever Hughes has been before, he's been the one and only main man, and now there's this guy 'interfering'.
in one way Marwood is there to limit what hughes can do, he has over sight and is there to look after the interests of the club (for example if he'd been around last year there is no way that Hughes would have been able to install so many of his own people, at least until his future was settled).
One story is that Marwood was unhappy with the determination Hughes had for getting lescott at any price, hence the big delay before the final bid. So at this point Hughes was just about getting his own way, he held sway.
Cook and Khaldoun listened to Hughes a lot last year, now they are hearing the other side of the story from Marwood....who knows what they thought though.... anyway, to cut a long story short, marwood and hughes clash again about future plans...
at some point the argument goes to Khaldoun (I bet cook dodged it totally) and marwood wins the argument. Hughes suddenly feels massively under pressure, and hampered. he wants marwood out, marwood is now telling Khaldoun and Cook they might be better off elsewhere. Marwood makes the point that Liverpool's weakness makes this season an opportunity that City couldn't afford to miss out on. keeping the big names onside is a problem for hughes, the dressing room rows probably heighten the perception that he isn't fully in control, and as for Robinho.....Marwood is making the case for change.... City are exploring their options seriously, because hughes is losing the argument as the winless run goes on.... Mancini is lined up, but Hughes gets back in the game with the arsenal and chelsea wins.
then, the spurs game is the nail in the coffin..all the ammunition Marwood needs. Hughes points the finger at the players.....Marwood points the finger at Hughes... Marwood says these are excuses, that this game, the attitude of the players, the continued defensive problems, what happened this time last year, show that hughes won't turn it around quickly enough, he might not turn it around at all, especially if the players are losing faith. Marwood has made the case for making the change NOW.
and that was that. I can quite believe Cook was involved in doing the final deed, but I think he's probably stayed reasonably distant up until that point, keeping his options open.
the worry for me isn't that Marwood has interfered. it's what happens with the players. did some of them get their own way? if so, it could be a disaster. Marwood will point to Mancini's track record for handling difficult characters and getting the best out of them... he got Adriano back playing football, he managed sodding Ibrahimovic for godssakes, whose attitude is unbelievably bad for team morale, but Mancini kept inter together and kept them winning. will Robinho settle down? will adebayor jump for the ball occasionally? the odds look good. it's how Mancini adapts to premiership football, not whether he can get the players onside, that will make him a success or failure IMO.
one nasty thought though. did some players get whiff of this power struggle and vote with their feet? I suppose that's how it works sometimes, when the manager is in a weak position. let's hope Mancini makes his position rock solid from the word go. everyone has a stake in seeing him succeed. if he doesn't, it'll be an even bigger name in the frame possibly as soon as next summer (I believe Mancini is effectively auditioning for this job). even Robinho might think Mancini is the kind of manager who 'can make me the best player in the world', as he did just that for ibra. Marwood's argument will be that even if we end up chasing Mourinho, this is worth trying, as Hughes has no track record of succeeding with this type of player, even in his time here.
me, I dunno. there are dangers, but there are opportunities. I have to agree that hughes wasn't attracting the big foreign players, and the premiership proven strategy wasn't a huge success. He hadn't got Robinho to settle down, and there were question marks over how it was working with Adebayor, maybe even other players. Player power is a nasty thing, but ultimately it's the job of the manager to dominate the team were necessary. Sadly I don't think Hughes found a way to do that. He dropped the underperforming Adebayor today, but it was far too late. Maybe if he'd done it after the bolton game, or before that even, he'd have found he had the clout all along.