Hughes - for all those slagging him off

[Shooter 83]

The only Problem I have is the switch of formation which has changed our style of play from great football to crap football, it's been the last 5 games to fit Tevez in. If it's not changed back against Liverpool I fear the worst. We have a squad of players made for 433/451. I think we all agree with with this.

yeah, we all know it mate - problem is though that Hughes is too stubborn to change it.

the most bemusing part for me is that there is no reason whatsoever that Tevez couldn't play on the right of the 3 man attack, why play a system all last season whilst buying new players that lend themselves to that system and then change it for no apparent reason?

It's baffling what he's doing, really is. I have about 1000 post's on here defending Hughes, but I can't with this. Tevez can play on the right side and he can work back when needed. Bellamy is not a left winger and is class on the left side of Ade same as Robinho.

I know it's alright saying this now and we'll never know, but I really do believe had we stuck with our normal formation the squad has used to been playing, we would have won atleast 3 of the last 5 we have drawn, we have let shit teams take points from us when we should of battered them.

 

[Soulboy]

Agreed. One of the the things that struck me early on was how Hughes needed a large 'support structure' and not necessarily composed of the brightest and best. Its long past the point where I feel that it is akin to an infestation which after two months or so infects the new players leading to lethergy, poor decision making and a curious inability to defend.

Still at least we can afford to have the place fumigated :)

Well, yes, the cost would not be an issue - but the massive upheaval would be.

Can you imagine any top manager coming in and being comfortable with so many staff, in different parts of the club, who are neither 'club men' or necessarily the best men for the job.

Yes, every new manager is faced with working with people they don't know and aren't their own appointments and they have to get on with it (that's the art of being a manager - well, unless you are Hughes and cannot work with anyone who isn't in the Taffia). But when they are all relatively new, owe their positions to their mate appointing them and don't have the experience and trust network built up through fairly long association with the club (which in turn gives them assurances that they will not be sacked as the previous manager's yes men) it makes it all very awkward.

If Hughes were to go it would no doubt mean that most of his numerous appointments would eventually go - so wedded are they all to being 'Hughes men' (something that Hughes promotes by running down, explicitely or otherwise, anyone here prior to him) - and they would know that too.

It makes it all very, very awkward and difficult. There's no backroom 'City men' left in a lot of positions at the club. And they are exactly the sort of people that the club and a new manager rely on during a period of transition between managers. If nothing else it allows the manager to surround himself with people who were not seen as completely wedded to the previous failed regime and take his time to make his own handful of key appointments.

Not only do I not like his virtual refusal to work with anyone who was not appointed by him (and preferably Welsh), but I am definitel suspicious that Hughes is far too Machiavelian. (So is Ferguson and many others, in fairness - but within your own club and so divisive regarding your own staff and payers as he has been in the last year?)

For all Hughes' faults... and I could do a list equivalent to War and Peace... he's a born survivor.

He knows exactly what he's doing. He plays the political games superbly. He has his contacts in the media all too ready to drop in the odd story when needed.

I fully expect him to begin work on his latest survival strategy soon, blathering on about it being a "work in progress" and how we have to be patience. Robinho won't be excluded from pointed barbs, in much the same way as the "troublemaking" Brazilians Jo and Elano were (Is RSC really any better than JO? Is Barry really any better than Elano?)

People are sacrificed at the manager's whim, simply because Cook is an inexperienced CEO who is despearte for Hughes to succeed and so gives him the free hand that any other manager in world football would die for.

Cook has been hypnotised by Hughes ramblings about Football Factories, improving training facilities, football science, 30 or more coaching staff, how Hughes need his own players and coaching staff at all costs. He repeatedly holds out his hand out for more investment, and the club keep coming up with it. It's a recognised managerial technique... chant the mantra of "Change" repeatedly, and the owners are bound to be forced to be patient. It goes on at every top business, so Hughes is no different to any other senior manager in business... looking out for himself.

Until Cook realises he's being taken for a ride, then nothing will change.

In fact, I would suggest that such are the skills of Hughes manouevering, Cook will be gone before Hughes!

No chance of an early departure of Hughes... he is WAY too smart for that!

 

[bri an t]

if we Finnish 6th he will have done what he was asked to do a the start, the owners have told him he as their backing so just lest wait and see, i think we will get to the top 6.

 

[warringtonmcfc]

I think we will get top 6, likely 5th but it's whether most will accept that given the money that we have laid out.

I think a lot of fans, realistically or not, will see anything less than top 4 as a failure.

 

[JohnMaddocksAxe]

I think we will get top 6, likely 5th but it's whether most will accept that given the money that we have laid out.

I think a lot of fans, realistically or not, will see anything less than top 4 as a failure.

There's a massive difference between finishing 5th or 6th after spending a season pushing the team in fourth.

You can also finish 5th or 6th, twenty points off fourth place and a couple of wins above the likes of Stoke, West Ham and Wigan.

I'd be quite happy with the first option. Not the second.

 

[Soulboy]

I think we will get top 6, likely 5th but it's whether most will accept that given the money that we have laid out.

I think a lot of fans, realistically or not, will see anything less than top 4 as a failure.

What the fans think success is, is absolutely irrelevant.

It's the owners that will determine what constitues success.

Win the Carling Cup? Success? I doubt it.

Finish 5th? They might be tempted to go another season if we did it with style.

Limp into 5th. place playing as shit as we have done so far this season? I think the chop.

Top 4 is the ONLY thing that will ensure Hughes and his bloated staff keep their jobs.

 

[pace89]

The Hughes out lot just say the same stuff they used to say about Swen, Pearce, Royle, and every other manager since Joe Mercer.

Unlike the Hughes apologists who just come out with the "lets give him time" bollox.

Football is now about finances, the richest clubs buy the best players and employ the best coaches and managers who then bring success to the club.

Hughes has had the money and the green light to change everything he wants.

His excuses for not winning matches is now becoming tiresome!

By this logic Real Madrid would win everything every year - and Chlesea would always win the Premier League.

Football's about building a team with patience and fortitude, especially when things are going wrong.

 

[warringtonmcfc]

I think we will get top 6, likely 5th but it's whether most will accept that given the money that we have laid out.

I think a lot of fans, realistically or not, will see anything less than top 4 as a failure.

What the fans think success is, is absolutely irrelevant.

It's the owners that will determine what constitues success.

Win the Carling Cup? Success? I doubt it.

Finish 5th? They might be tempted to go another season if we did it with style.

Limp into 5th. place playing as shit as we have done so far this season? I think the chop.

Top 4 is the ONLY thing that will ensure Hughes and his bloated staff keep their jobs.

I think you are right. I think we have to win something and finish fifth if we are outside the Champions League.

Hand on heart, I can't see us beating Arsenal in the cup unless the confidence improves a lot. If we go out then he really will come under pressure.

 

[pace89]

The fundamental problem this club has had since the 70's is we fuck off managers after a few dodgy results, bring someelse in and then sack him when the exact pattern repeats itself.

Just curious, which managers since the 1970's should we have persevered with? I don't remember any of them going on to prove the decisions wrong.

Tony Book? John Bond? Howard Kendall? (fair enough he quit but it adds to the point) We'd have been better off with another season of Brian Horton than bringing in Alan Ball to get us relegated.

 

[blueinsa]

Unlike the Hughes apologists who just come out with the "lets give him time" bollox.

Football is now about finances, the richest clubs buy the best players and employ the best coaches and managers who then bring success to the club.

Hughes has had the money and the green light to change everything he wants.

His excuses for not winning matches is now becoming tiresome!

By this logic Real Madrid would win everything every year - and Chlesea would always win the Premier League.

Football's about building a team with patience and fortitude, especially when things are going wrong.

They both win a lot more than we do dont they?

Money doesnt seem to do them much harm?