Hughes' Legacy

[GaudinoMotors]

"Comfort Zone" signings !
"Making do with what he's got!"

Correct me if I`m wrong but weren't we all saying how good the buys and the squad were pre- season? Weren't there legions of fans outside the ground celebrating all our captures?
This forum, the press and media were all tipping this squad for great things, some still are (incidently we are on track). All of the sudden the players are shite, under performing, or as in the case of Barry - preceived to be a bad buy. When Barry signed in the summer - who on here didn't honestly think that was a great coup? I don't know about you but I actually witnessed with my own eyes what an cultured influential player he was at Villa only a matter of MONTHS ago! Far too easy on here to slag the players off - imagine being a City player reading this site - the "majority" putting in a hard shift on the pitch and in training , following the somewhat bizaar tactical instructions of the present and last manager and yet still somehow in fourth and with the game in hand.
The problem lies with the managers - neither has managed to get the blend right and the number of changes every match (due to tactics, injury, suspensions) - it's a wonder we don't get a fine every game like Wolves. I don't buy the "their not Mancini players" guff - look at that squad and tell me a manger who knows what he's doing couldn't get them to play decent football. I genuinly hope Mancini will come good in terms of the balance of footabll and that he is presently getting to know the capabilities of the players whilst accumulating and protecting points.
If good players - and we know they are from having watched them at other clubs - months not years ago! - are not performing as they did - it's got to be the tactics, selections and roles they are being asked to play - and that's the Mangers resposibility.
Sick of every player getting absolutely vilified on here. Far too easy to say he's shite etc.

 

[JohnMaddocksAxe]

I apologise in advance for the length of my post but I feel a thorough assessment is required.

I have to say that for the money Hughes was given, he should have been able to assemble a top 'team.' It is all well and good for people to say that we should have given him more time, but you have to understand that there is nothing in Hughes' past that suggests that he is good enough to be a top manager. All the talk about best 'up and coming' manager is an attempt to mask the distinct lack of quality British managers (anyone remember what happened to the last best 'up and coming' British manager who was given a top job, that Steve 'wally with the brolley' McClaren). You cannot give people time based on a distinct lack of previous credentials. This is the case in all walks of life, if someone's experience extended to filing their dad's tax returns, they could not just walk into a job at KPMG! Hughes did not qualify for a major tournament with Wales and the highlight of his managerial career is finishing 7th with Blackburn. Many give comparisons with Ferguson and say well he did not achieve in his first few seasons with the Rags but was still given time. The important difference between the situations is that Ferguson had already achieved something is his career having broken the Rangers/Celtic duopoly with Aberdeen and then going on to win the European Cup Winners' Cup beating Bayern Munich and Real Madrid along the way!

A taste of Hughes as a manager was when at the end of last season he said that it was unfair that Harry Redknapp got a lot of praise for finishing 9th and he did not for finishing 10th! Twitcher took the Tottenham job with them bottom of the table with 2 points from 8 games! Hughes took a team which finished 9th the year before (would have been higher but Sven was told he was out before the end of the season hence the shocking end of season form i.e. 8-1 loss to 'boro) spent over 70m (NOT including the 50m signings of Jo and Robinho, as much as everyone hates the latter he was our top scorer last year) and finished one place lower in 10th and wanted praise for such an outstanding achievement!

Although many on this forum have said Hughes bought well, I am afraid I disagree, any 12 year old with even rudimentary knowledge of the Premier League could have bought those players. He did not seem to want to leave his comfort zone, so decided to not to look further then the end of his nose for talent without any thought about how they would play together. There were no unearthed gems or inspired signings, bar perhaps Kompany. Some may argue that De Jong was an exceptional buy but that was for 17m (would have been 2.5m at the end of the season), hardly cheap. You may argue well 'we can afford it' so who cares, but I think that is an extremely immature viewpoint. If you were a millionaire and wanted a Ferrari would you pay twice the price for it, just because you could afford it?

The team assembled by Hughes is very disjointed and I am amazed at the lack of players who can actually pass the ball. If you look at any of the top sides, United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Barca, Madrid, Inter, Milan, they move the ball around with consummate ease. For the amount of money spent we should have players who can pass the ball better.

I have nothing against Hughes personally and in fact I do have some sympathy for him, in that we were never going to sign the big players (Kaka, Terry) and it was very difficult to attract good players to the club, but I still think he should have done better. I feel many people on this forum wrongly believe (perhaps due to the limited success of this club and lack of top players for the last few decades, or maybe the good results against, Arsenal and Chelsea) that many of our players are among the best in the League. Prime examples of this are the superlatives thrown at players like De Jong and Barry. I have said on this forum before that I believe this is where the main weakness in our team lies. I find the comparisons between De Jong and Makelee completely unwarranted the latter was the engine of a Real Madrid team that won the Champions League and could actually pass the ball around. De Jong does things well, he is a fighter, he puts his foot in, he gets into the oppositions faces, but for the level we want to be at he should be able to pass the ball much better. His first instinct when he gets the ball is turn around and pass it backwards, when in reality that should be the last choice, once all other options are exhausted. Barry, again is praised and while he has produced for Villa and England, he looks poor in a city shirt. If he is carrying an injury then I am prepared to give him time, but a couple of decent performances does not warrant him to be classed among the best midfield players in the league (Essien, Lampard, Ballack, Gerard, Mascharano, Fabregas).

People keep blaming Mancini for not playing Ireland and SWP, but fail to remember that these two players are out of form and are unlikely to just produce in the middle of a match. Lots of people also wanted to see Santa Cruz and Adebayor play together but when that happens, Mancini is again criticised for poor team selection. Understandably, many are feeling frustrated by our recent performances, but Mancini can only work with what he has got until the end of the season. The reason I feel that he deserves some time is that unlike Hughes he has achieved success in his previous clubs. Whatever people think about the standard of the Seria A, not anyone can just become the manager of Inter, the are owned by Billionaire Moratti and he has high standards. Of course, Mancini had a lot of luck but 3 Seria A titles (in a row) and cup wins with Fiorentina and Lazio are not to be hastily dismissed.

Also, to Mancini's credit he identified our weaknesses in midfield, while everyone on here was still going on about our defence and attempted to address the problem in the January window, but unfortunately we could not sign Mariga, Gago or Flamini. I also, feel that good results have masked a lot of our deficiencies (namely our lack of passing and movement). Mancini probably thought he did not need to do add too much to a winning team and spent most of his time planning for the CC semi with the Rags and by the time he realised that we had problems the window had closed.

It will take time for the players to adjust to a completely different system and although early signs are not encouraging we are somehow still 4th in the table with a game in hand and have a cup replay at Stoke to look forward to. Whatever peoples view, Mancini will be our manager until at least the end of the season, so let us wait until then to make up our minds about him and who if anyone should replace him. Mourinho is not taking over next week, no matter how badly people want him to and I would like to add, even if he did, it would take him at least a few months to stamp his authority on the squad and turn the team into winners.

So let us put all the rumours to bed and back the team to finish the season on a high, there is plenty of time in the summer to assess the situation if things do not improve!

I really don't think it adds anything to this forum when people just post "THIS" but I am tempted to here.

This forum needs more posts like this regardless of the content.

I might be biased as I agree with an awful lot of what is contained within this post but even if I didn't I would still be impressed by it as it well constructed, thoughtful and attempts to put flesh on the bones of its basic assertions.

(I've just read back what I've written there and it strikes me that it is a sad state of affairs when people, including me, feel the need to make a point of highlighting posts like this. I'm sure hbruz80 would agree that whilst his post is well written, intelligent and structured, it isn't exactly the works of Shakespeare. It's a short piece, stuggling to even reach 10 paragraphs, which takes a minute or so to read. Yet several people have noted that it stands out and feel the need to highlight it. And he feels he has to begin by apologising for its (short, imo) length. That's not good for this site imo.)

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

I apologise in advance for the length of my post but I feel a thorough assessment is required.

I have to say that for the money Hughes was given, he should have been able to assemble a top 'team.' It is all well and good for people to say that we should have given him more time, but you have to understand that there is nothing in Hughes' past that suggests that he is good enough to be a top manager. All the talk about best 'up and coming' manager is an attempt to mask the distinct lack of quality British managers (anyone remember what happened to the last best 'up and coming' British manager who was given a top job, that Steve 'wally with the brolley' McClaren). You cannot give people time based on a distinct lack of previous credentials. This is the case in all walks of life, if someone's experience extended to filing their dad's tax returns, they could not just walk into a job at KPMG! Hughes did not qualify for a major tournament with Wales and the highlight of his managerial career is finishing 7th with Blackburn. Many give comparisons with Ferguson and say well he did not achieve in his first few seasons with the Rags but was still given time. The important difference between the situations is that Ferguson had already achieved something is his career having broken the Rangers/Celtic duopoly with Aberdeen and then going on to win the European Cup Winners' Cup beating Bayern Munich and Real Madrid along the way!

A taste of Hughes as a manager was when at the end of last season he said that it was unfair that Harry Redknapp got a lot of praise for finishing 9th and he did not for finishing 10th! Twitcher took the Tottenham job with them bottom of the table with 2 points from 8 games! Hughes took a team which finished 9th the year before (would have been higher but Sven was told he was out before the end of the season hence the shocking end of season form i.e. 8-1 loss to 'boro) spent over 70m (NOT including the 50m signings of Jo and Robinho, as much as everyone hates the latter he was our top scorer last year) and finished one place lower in 10th and wanted praise for such an outstanding achievement!

Although many on this forum have said Hughes bought well, I am afraid I disagree, any 12 year old with even rudimentary knowledge of the Premier League could have bought those players. He did not seem to want to leave his comfort zone, so decided to not to look further then the end of his nose for talent without any thought about how they would play together. There were no unearthed gems or inspired signings, bar perhaps Kompany. Some may argue that De Jong was an exceptional buy but that was for 17m (would have been 2.5m at the end of the season), hardly cheap. You may argue well 'we can afford it' so who cares, but I think that is an extremely immature viewpoint. If you were a millionaire and wanted a Ferrari would you pay twice the price for it, just because you could afford it?

The team assembled by Hughes is very disjointed and I am amazed at the lack of players who can actually pass the ball. If you look at any of the top sides, United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Barca, Madrid, Inter, Milan, they move the ball around with consummate ease. For the amount of money spent we should have players who can pass the ball better.

I have nothing against Hughes personally and in fact I do have some sympathy for him, in that we were never going to sign the big players (Kaka, Terry) and it was very difficult to attract good players to the club, but I still think he should have done better. I feel many people on this forum wrongly believe (perhaps due to the limited success of this club and lack of top players for the last few decades, or maybe the good results against, Arsenal and Chelsea) that many of our players are among the best in the League. Prime examples of this are the superlatives thrown at players like De Jong and Barry. I have said on this forum before that I believe this is where the main weakness in our team lies. I find the comparisons between De Jong and Makelee completely unwarranted the latter was the engine of a Real Madrid team that won the Champions League and could actually pass the ball around. De Jong does things well, he is a fighter, he puts his foot in, he gets into the oppositions faces, but for the level we want to be at he should be able to pass the ball much better. His first instinct when he gets the ball is turn around and pass it backwards, when in reality that should be the last choice, once all other options are exhausted. Barry, again is praised and while he has produced for Villa and England, he looks poor in a city shirt. If he is carrying an injury then I am prepared to give him time, but a couple of decent performances does not warrant him to be classed among the best midfield players in the league (Essien, Lampard, Ballack, Gerard, Mascharano, Fabregas).

People keep blaming Mancini for not playing Ireland and SWP, but fail to remember that these two players are out of form and are unlikely to just produce in the middle of a match. Lots of people also wanted to see Santa Cruz and Adebayor play together but when that happens, Mancini is again criticised for poor team selection. Understandably, many are feeling frustrated by our recent performances, but Mancini can only work with what he has got until the end of the season. The reason I feel that he deserves some time is that unlike Hughes he has achieved success in his previous clubs. Whatever people think about the standard of the Seria A, not anyone can just become the manager of Inter, the are owned by Billionaire Moratti and he has high standards. Of course, Mancini had a lot of luck but 3 Seria A titles (in a row) and cup wins with Fiorentina and Lazio are not to be hastily dismissed.

Also, to Mancini's credit he identified our weaknesses in midfield, while everyone on here was still going on about our defence and attempted to address the problem in the January window, but unfortunately we could not sign Mariga, Gago or Flamini. I also, feel that good results have masked a lot of our deficiencies (namely our lack of passing and movement). Mancini probably thought he did not need to do add too much to a winning team and spent most of his time planning for the CC semi with the Rags and by the time he realised that we had problems the window had closed.

It will take time for the players to adjust to a completely different system and although early signs are not encouraging we are somehow still 4th in the table with a game in hand and have a cup replay at Stoke to look forward to. Whatever peoples view, Mancini will be our manager until at least the end of the season, so let us wait until then to make up our minds about him and who if anyone should replace him. Mourinho is not taking over next week, no matter how badly people want him to and I would like to add, even if he did, it would take him at least a few months to stamp his authority on the squad and turn the team into winners.

So let us put all the rumours to bed and back the team to finish the season on a high, there is plenty of time in the summer to assess the situation if things do not improve!

Sorry - this post reminds me of what one politician once said about another "He is a first rate speaker with a third rate mind"

Nicely written but flawed on so many levels. Your description of Hughes and the KPMG analogy are way off the mark. Did anyone seriously expect Wales to qualify for a major tournament or Blackburn to get into the top 6? No. But people reckon he did a very good job with the resources available to him. Hughes had Premiership management experience and had over-achieved at Blackburn. That's more like joining KPMG from BDO Stoy Hayward.

Hughes initial task was to get us to the top 6 and he bought proven Premiership players to achieve this. Most of us were pleased with the players he bought last summer - Tevez, Barry, Toure, Adebayor, Lescott, Santa Cruz. Maybe the last-named was a risk but all the others were players who could perform in the higher reaches of the Premiership. The Ferrari analogy is completely stupid - there is a price for that but if it's a popular model you will pay more to get it quicker. Footballers don't come with RRP's.

Integrating more than 3 new players into a team is always difficult and trying to get 6 or 7 in at one go might be my biggest criticism of Hughes. It can rarely, if ever be done without a down-side. The alternatives open to us weren't great. We couldn't attract the like of Terry & Kaka (and I don't believe many managers would have been able to without offering CL football) and the alternative was to try and find some cheaper foreign, less well-known talent. That's a risky game in terms of what Hughes had been told to achieve. Would you risk another Samaras or Corradi over Adebayor? Look at Robinho - undoubtedly a great player but the Premiership, like La Liga, was far to much for him. That's why Hughes wanted solid, experienced Premiership players.

 

[blueonblue]

Mancini can`t get the blend right for the simple reason the retarded f*ckpig who blighted our managers office previously paid little thought to the players bought, it was like a very stupid child on the playstation with unlimited funds.

What we know have is a goalie who while a briliant shot stopper can`t take control of his area, a center half who is poor in the air when under any presure, a makeshift r/back and a left back with his head up his ar*e......................But none of them are bad players, just not fitting together.

The midfeild is the point of attacking play through teams, dominate the middle and we put the other team under pressure and take it off our defence, except that was the area completly ignored by the above f*ckpig..........We have NO creative players, the nearest is Ireland but he`s a lightweight and needs a partner (Like Elano), what we have is a colection of defencive midfeild players, again not particulary bad players, and again so alike in style they fall over one another rather than complement each other.

That leaves the attack, where at least we have an abundance of very good players, except there is no supply except up the sides or long balls in, not much good against a team who packs the area because without the midfeild getting up in support we are outnumbered.

So what we need is at least one decent defender (Dunne at villa looks good ;0) ), a playmaker in midfield (Like....er....Elano? ), and a box to box engine room ( Here we have some light, Johnsone when fit is the perfect choice).

Roberto has tried to bring in a dominant midfeilder, Viera is a short term fix to hold midfeild while he can finally get someone in, not helped by the cock up with work permits in jan, so all he can do is compensate with tactics for the TEAM shortcomings.........with the ACN and injuries he has not had a lot of choice in many games anyway.

So I agreed with you 99% on the player, they are not sh*t, far from it in most cases, the one % is Crocky santa f*cking cruise who is ;0), but Mancini can only do so much with what he has.

 

[GStar]

Think this is an awfull arguement... under Hughes we were one of the top scorers in the league... i think Kompany was bought as a long term defender, he's played midfield for us mostly, not in the past under other managers.

We sold Elano because he was disruptive, talented... but not willing to put a shift in unless it was a "big" game.

Hughes got the sack on his defensive frailities, i've no idea what you're trying to get out of this, but i think you're well wide of the mark.

nothing awful about this argument at all. we were high scorers last season with elano and robinho in the squad - two creative players. tell me, where is our lampard, gerard, fabregas?
un!ted get away without one because they have rooney. not since stuart pearce was in charge have i seen such a defence minded midfield with not one central player seemingly wanting to join in attack. stephen ireland maybe, but he's out of form and continually frustrates with his lack of thought before a pass.

I is anawfull arguement... under Hughes we didn't need a Gerrard, we were in the top5 scorers in the league iirc, scoring goals was never a problem.

Its only now Mancini is employing a completely iffernet set of tactics, were no midfield personal are attack minded your asking for a creative force... all our creative forces are on the bench; SWP/Petrov/Ireland.

Criticise Hughes for his defensive set up, it cost him his job... but there is absolutely no ground to attack Hughes for his set up going forward... Managers regularly came out and said they feared our pace, width and ability going forward, and they were right to. 4 versus Arsenal, 3 versus utd, 2 versus Chelsea we scored for fun.

 

[GStar]

Sorry - this post reminds me of what one politician once said about another "He is a first rate speaker with a third rate mind"

Nicely written but flawed on so many levels. Your description of Hughes and the KPMG analogy are way off the mark. Did anyone seriously expect Wales to qualify for a major tournament or Blackburn to get into the top 6? No. But people reckon he did a very good job with the resources available to him. Hughes had Premiership management experience and had over-achieved at Blackburn. That's more like joining KPMG from BDO Stoy Hayward.

Hughes initial task was to get us to the top 6 and he bought proven Premiership players to achieve this. Most of us were pleased with the players he bought last summer - Tevez, Barry, Toure, Adebayor, Lescott, Santa Cruz. Maybe the last-named was a risk but all the others were players who could perform in the higher reaches of the Premiership. The Ferrari analogy is completely stupid - there is a price for that but if it's a popular model you will pay more to get it quicker. Footballers don't come with RRP's.

Integrating more than 3 new players into a team is always difficult and trying to get 6 or 7 in at one go might be my biggest criticism of Hughes. It can rarely, if ever be done without a down-side. The alternatives open to us weren't great. We couldn't attract the like of Terry & Kaka (and I don't believe many managers would have been able to without offering CL football) and the alternative was to try and find some cheaper foreign, less well-known talent. That's a risky game in terms of what Hughes had been told to achieve. Would you risk another Samaras or Corradi over Adebayor? Look at Robinho - undoubtedly a great player but the Premiership, like La Liga, was far to much for him. That's why Hughes wanted solid, experienced Premiership players.

I agree, i thought people had begun to take thier head out the sand and begun to appreciate what Pearce did here, despite the football, desipte the fans boos, despite his own reputation, he made sure he achieved his goal under Wardle et al - to keep City in the Premiership. He blew his budget on an unknown and, in the end, it backfired (so did playing him on the wing).

But surely seeing what Hughes got out of our squad and why he bought who he did can be appreciated, he bought to achieve his goal, which was then changed when he got them playing well so quickly. In the end the draws got the better of him, the sloppy goals cost him his job, but he set us up well, on and off the field to go on and realise our goals... perhaps he could have done it himself, although with his backroom team i'm not so sure.

 

[M18CTID]

I apologise in advance for the length of my post but I feel a thorough assessment is required.

I have to say that for the money Hughes was given, he should have been able to assemble a top 'team.' It is all well and good for people to say that we should have given him more time, but you have to understand that there is nothing in Hughes' past that suggests that he is good enough to be a top manager. All the talk about best 'up and coming' manager is an attempt to mask the distinct lack of quality British managers (anyone remember what happened to the last best 'up and coming' British manager who was given a top job, that Steve 'wally with the brolley' McClaren). You cannot give people time based on a distinct lack of previous credentials. This is the case in all walks of life, if someone's experience extended to filing their dad's tax returns, they could not just walk into a job at KPMG! Hughes did not qualify for a major tournament with Wales and the highlight of his managerial career is finishing 7th with Blackburn. Many give comparisons with Ferguson and say well he did not achieve in his first few seasons with the Rags but was still given time. The important difference between the situations is that Ferguson had already achieved something is his career having broken the Rangers/Celtic duopoly with Aberdeen and then going on to win the European Cup Winners' Cup beating Bayern Munich and Real Madrid along the way!

A taste of Hughes as a manager was when at the end of last season he said that it was unfair that Harry Redknapp got a lot of praise for finishing 9th and he did not for finishing 10th! Twitcher took the Tottenham job with them bottom of the table with 2 points from 8 games! Hughes took a team which finished 9th the year before (would have been higher but Sven was told he was out before the end of the season hence the shocking end of season form i.e. 8-1 loss to 'boro) spent over 70m (NOT including the 50m signings of Jo and Robinho, as much as everyone hates the latter he was our top scorer last year) and finished one place lower in 10th and wanted praise for such an outstanding achievement!

Although many on this forum have said Hughes bought well, I am afraid I disagree, any 12 year old with even rudimentary knowledge of the Premier League could have bought those players. He did not seem to want to leave his comfort zone, so decided to not to look further then the end of his nose for talent without any thought about how they would play together. There were no unearthed gems or inspired signings, bar perhaps Kompany. Some may argue that De Jong was an exceptional buy but that was for 17m (would have been 2.5m at the end of the season), hardly cheap. You may argue well 'we can afford it' so who cares, but I think that is an extremely immature viewpoint. If you were a millionaire and wanted a Ferrari would you pay twice the price for it, just because you could afford it?

The team assembled by Hughes is very disjointed and I am amazed at the lack of players who can actually pass the ball. If you look at any of the top sides, United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Barca, Madrid, Inter, Milan, they move the ball around with consummate ease. For the amount of money spent we should have players who can pass the ball better.

I have nothing against Hughes personally and in fact I do have some sympathy for him, in that we were never going to sign the big players (Kaka, Terry) and it was very difficult to attract good players to the club, but I still think he should have done better. I feel many people on this forum wrongly believe (perhaps due to the limited success of this club and lack of top players for the last few decades, or maybe the good results against, Arsenal and Chelsea) that many of our players are among the best in the League. Prime examples of this are the superlatives thrown at players like De Jong and Barry. I have said on this forum before that I believe this is where the main weakness in our team lies. I find the comparisons between De Jong and Makelee completely unwarranted the latter was the engine of a Real Madrid team that won the Champions League and could actually pass the ball around. De Jong does things well, he is a fighter, he puts his foot in, he gets into the oppositions faces, but for the level we want to be at he should be able to pass the ball much better. His first instinct when he gets the ball is turn around and pass it backwards, when in reality that should be the last choice, once all other options are exhausted. Barry, again is praised and while he has produced for Villa and England, he looks poor in a city shirt. If he is carrying an injury then I am prepared to give him time, but a couple of decent performances does not warrant him to be classed among the best midfield players in the league (Essien, Lampard, Ballack, Gerard, Mascharano, Fabregas).

People keep blaming Mancini for not playing Ireland and SWP, but fail to remember that these two players are out of form and are unlikely to just produce in the middle of a match. Lots of people also wanted to see Santa Cruz and Adebayor play together but when that happens, Mancini is again criticised for poor team selection. Understandably, many are feeling frustrated by our recent performances, but Mancini can only work with what he has got until the end of the season. The reason I feel that he deserves some time is that unlike Hughes he has achieved success in his previous clubs. Whatever people think about the standard of the Seria A, not anyone can just become the manager of Inter, the are owned by Billionaire Moratti and he has high standards. Of course, Mancini had a lot of luck but 3 Seria A titles (in a row) and cup wins with Fiorentina and Lazio are not to be hastily dismissed.

Also, to Mancini's credit he identified our weaknesses in midfield, while everyone on here was still going on about our defence and attempted to address the problem in the January window, but unfortunately we could not sign Mariga, Gago or Flamini. I also, feel that good results have masked a lot of our deficiencies (namely our lack of passing and movement). Mancini probably thought he did not need to do add too much to a winning team and spent most of his time planning for the CC semi with the Rags and by the time he realised that we had problems the window had closed.

It will take time for the players to adjust to a completely different system and although early signs are not encouraging we are somehow still 4th in the table with a game in hand and have a cup replay at Stoke to look forward to. Whatever peoples view, Mancini will be our manager until at least the end of the season, so let us wait until then to make up our minds about him and who if anyone should replace him. Mourinho is not taking over next week, no matter how badly people want him to and I would like to add, even if he did, it would take him at least a few months to stamp his authority on the squad and turn the team into winners.

So let us put all the rumours to bed and back the team to finish the season on a high, there is plenty of time in the summer to assess the situation if things do not improve!

I really don't think it adds anything to this forum when people just post "THIS" but I am tempted to here.

This forum needs more posts like this regardless of the content.

I might be biased as I agree with an awful lot of what is contained within this post but even if I didn't I would still be impressed by it as it well constructed, thoughtful and attempts to put flesh on the bones of its basic assertions.

(I've just read back what I've written there and it strikes me that it is a sad state of affairs when people, including me, feel the need to make a point of highlighting posts like this. I'm sure hbruz80 would agree that whilst his post is well written, intelligent and structured, it isn't exactly the works of Shakespeare. It's a short piece, stuggling to even reach 10 paragraphs, which takes a minute or so to read. Yet several people have noted that it stands out and feel the need to highlight it. And he feels he has to begin by apologising for its (short, imo) length. That's not good for this site imo.)

Perhaps we might see you yourself learning a lesson or 2 from hbruz80 on how to put a point across (regardless of whether we agree or not with it) without antagonising everyone in the process, but I wouldn't bank on it.

Speaking of which, why is it you seem to only ever post on threads regarding Hughes? I'm sure you post on other threads too but whenever there's a Hughes thread you're swarming all over it like flies round dog shit. Do you have an in-built radar that detects a Hughes thread immediately after it's been posted? ;)

 

[barney8]

I apologise in advance for the length of my post but I feel a thorough assessment is required.
etc

No need to apologize. That was the best post I've read here .... probably ever.

 

[J-Bay Blue]

All 3 are defensive midfielders therefore scoring aint their job!! Scoring goals hasn't really been an issue so does it matter??

We are going to have a season where we may be over-reliant on Gatito. I propose that every successful team needs two main goalscorers, one to complement the other, and take up the job when the other has a blank.

Over reliant on Carlos? I don't think so.
Look at the Rags - 2nd in the Prem and TOTALLY reliant on shrek.

Do you know who thier next highest goal scorer is?

Mr O. Goal - own goals, FFS.

Then, next we have Berbaflop (8 goals) whom that magician of a manager Sir baconface has transformed from en exciting full of flair match-winner at Spurs to a mediocre bench-warmer at Ushited!

I do agree that ideally, you should have 2 strikers giving you 15 plus goals per season, with 7 or eight from the wingers and 5 or 6 from the centre backs.

Lescott and Barry used to score 5 - 10 goals each per season at thier previous clubs!

 

[JohnMaddocksAxe]

I really don't think it adds anything to this forum when people just post "THIS" but I am tempted to here.

This forum needs more posts like this regardless of the content.

I might be biased as I agree with an awful lot of what is contained within this post but even if I didn't I would still be impressed by it as it well constructed, thoughtful and attempts to put flesh on the bones of its basic assertions.

(I've just read back what I've written there and it strikes me that it is a sad state of affairs when people, including me, feel the need to make a point of highlighting posts like this. I'm sure hbruz80 would agree that whilst his post is well written, intelligent and structured, it isn't exactly the works of Shakespeare. It's a short piece, stuggling to even reach 10 paragraphs, which takes a minute or so to read. Yet several people have noted that it stands out and feel the need to highlight it. And he feels he has to begin by apologising for its (short, imo) length. That's not good for this site imo.)

Perhaps we might see you yourself learning a lesson or 2 from hbruz80 on how to put a point across (regardless of whether we agree or not with it) without antagonising everyone in the process, but I wouldn't bank on it.

Speaking of which, why is it you seem to only ever post on threads regarding Hughes? I'm sure you post on other threads too but whenever there's a Hughes thread you're swarming all over it like flies round dog shit. Do you have an in-built radar that detects a Hughes thread immediately after it's been posted? ;)

If you are going to post a 'handbags' type moan at least do me a favour and leave the winky type sign off the end.

As it is I don't know whether to respond with a withering, yet indifferent putdown or something along the lines of "yeah, mate, nice one ;) ;) :) :) :) :) :) LOL ROFL"

Either way, sorry for upsetting you so much.