Joycee Banercheck
Well-Known Member
I think it's all been posted on threads by a number of people already and it's all going to sound like de ja vu for the most part. I'd say I'm Pro-Hughes. There's times I've wondered why and when I read posts on here when it hasn't gone so well I do agree with a lot of the things people point out as his short-comings. Right now we simply aren't good enough. Long term I think it could be a lot different.
Our squad has been bolstered by arrivals at a lot of cost. This works out both in favour and against Hughes. He's spent a reported £130m. That's an obscene amount of money and I don't think anyone has spent as much as us this season. On the downside of it, how have we not improved our league position from last year with adding so much to what was already a decent side? Yet, what he has brought in has definitely been a requirement or an improvement on what we had. You could also argue that of that £130m, £50m was for Jo and Robinho. £80m on the rest. It's still £130m but it sort of puts a little perspective on how he's got the rest of his buys. Kompany, DeJong, Given, Bridge, Bellamy, Zabaleta and SWP (forget Ben-Haim!!) are top buys and to get them all at a combined £80m is reasonable considering we have the cash to splash and everyone knows that. Hughes has bought well and he's done that at Blackburn too. Thaksin wasn't giving him any cash before ADUG came in so really to pick up Kompany, SWP, Robinho and then have 4 weeks in January to get the rest I think he did really well. His transfer dealings are definitely a positive point overall.
When Hughes was appointed I was NOT happy. I envisaged a side similar to Blackburn's recent bad-boy, hard-tackling and thuggishness all scrapping for an hard earned 3 points here and there. Granted we didn't have money then and Thaksin was steering the ship, but we still played some good football (got our only away win this season before we got rich) and at times this season we've been amazing to watch. I'd even go so far as to say that the grit of Blackburn I feared we'd be built on is something we lack a bit of. If he can get the balance of the flair and the solidness then we'd be a much better side. He's done it at Rovers and at Wales so it's within his capability to do it. Is it due to disharmony in the dressing room as to why we don't do it? I could never tell you that. I could tell you that what I've seen in photos and read on NMT's posts about training, there doesn't seem to be many sad faces out there.
There's been some major mistakes by players and the manager alike, but everyone at the club is on a learning curve with each other because there's been that many changes at our club over the past three years. We've had a change of owners, chairman, management and players. Despite all that, the team has performed well enough to be within a faint shout of Europa next year (not likely, but worth fighting for), reached the 1/4s of a competition we only qualified for because we were nice to other teams the year before, which was hardly surprising as I don't think we made a tackle back end of the penultimate season and given some teams some right drubbings. OK we've been really poor at times too.
We played 17 games in Europe on top of what is now nearly a full premier league season. If we were to be in the competition a season from next (fingers crossed) I'd expect us to be more wise to the teams we'd be playing and with a better squad to get us through all the games. We wouldn't be relying on the likes of Fernandes, who might be good enough then, to hold together a midfield in the club's biggest European fixture in 30 years.
There's been talk of his clueless tactics. Fair enough he's made some substitutions that have baffled everyone. I can't argue against that. I'd put it down to getting to know his players who he sees at training everyday. WHat might work on a training ground won't necessarily work in a real game. He seems to be trying to fit players into a system that don't quite fit and if he'd had some of the players he's got at his disposal available (Boj, Petrov and Johnson for a start) then some of the players who have had to put in shifts where we'd never put them wouldn't have probably been there.
Jo and Ben Haim didn't cut the mustard so he got shut of them. Maybe everyone doesn't agree with this, but I'm glad he showed them who is boss. We were told he had a spat with Elano yet everytime Elano's been on recently he's put in a performance. Maybe players are now starting to respond to the way he does things?
I could go on but they all conclude with the same outcome. I really think he needs to be assessed in a year's time. We've got the players we need to make the extra step up to challenge for Europe next year as long as we get some good additions in the Summer. To think we could have done it all this year was a big ask. I don't care how much money you throw at a team it won't instantly sort everything out that needs to be sorted out. Teams take time to build and, with those new faces and the basis we've started to develop this year, if we get it right away from home next year and keep our home form then we'll be attracting players and winning those fucking silver things (I think they're called trophies) as
we improve.
Our squad has been bolstered by arrivals at a lot of cost. This works out both in favour and against Hughes. He's spent a reported £130m. That's an obscene amount of money and I don't think anyone has spent as much as us this season. On the downside of it, how have we not improved our league position from last year with adding so much to what was already a decent side? Yet, what he has brought in has definitely been a requirement or an improvement on what we had. You could also argue that of that £130m, £50m was for Jo and Robinho. £80m on the rest. It's still £130m but it sort of puts a little perspective on how he's got the rest of his buys. Kompany, DeJong, Given, Bridge, Bellamy, Zabaleta and SWP (forget Ben-Haim!!) are top buys and to get them all at a combined £80m is reasonable considering we have the cash to splash and everyone knows that. Hughes has bought well and he's done that at Blackburn too. Thaksin wasn't giving him any cash before ADUG came in so really to pick up Kompany, SWP, Robinho and then have 4 weeks in January to get the rest I think he did really well. His transfer dealings are definitely a positive point overall.
When Hughes was appointed I was NOT happy. I envisaged a side similar to Blackburn's recent bad-boy, hard-tackling and thuggishness all scrapping for an hard earned 3 points here and there. Granted we didn't have money then and Thaksin was steering the ship, but we still played some good football (got our only away win this season before we got rich) and at times this season we've been amazing to watch. I'd even go so far as to say that the grit of Blackburn I feared we'd be built on is something we lack a bit of. If he can get the balance of the flair and the solidness then we'd be a much better side. He's done it at Rovers and at Wales so it's within his capability to do it. Is it due to disharmony in the dressing room as to why we don't do it? I could never tell you that. I could tell you that what I've seen in photos and read on NMT's posts about training, there doesn't seem to be many sad faces out there.
There's been some major mistakes by players and the manager alike, but everyone at the club is on a learning curve with each other because there's been that many changes at our club over the past three years. We've had a change of owners, chairman, management and players. Despite all that, the team has performed well enough to be within a faint shout of Europa next year (not likely, but worth fighting for), reached the 1/4s of a competition we only qualified for because we were nice to other teams the year before, which was hardly surprising as I don't think we made a tackle back end of the penultimate season and given some teams some right drubbings. OK we've been really poor at times too.
We played 17 games in Europe on top of what is now nearly a full premier league season. If we were to be in the competition a season from next (fingers crossed) I'd expect us to be more wise to the teams we'd be playing and with a better squad to get us through all the games. We wouldn't be relying on the likes of Fernandes, who might be good enough then, to hold together a midfield in the club's biggest European fixture in 30 years.
There's been talk of his clueless tactics. Fair enough he's made some substitutions that have baffled everyone. I can't argue against that. I'd put it down to getting to know his players who he sees at training everyday. WHat might work on a training ground won't necessarily work in a real game. He seems to be trying to fit players into a system that don't quite fit and if he'd had some of the players he's got at his disposal available (Boj, Petrov and Johnson for a start) then some of the players who have had to put in shifts where we'd never put them wouldn't have probably been there.
Jo and Ben Haim didn't cut the mustard so he got shut of them. Maybe everyone doesn't agree with this, but I'm glad he showed them who is boss. We were told he had a spat with Elano yet everytime Elano's been on recently he's put in a performance. Maybe players are now starting to respond to the way he does things?
I could go on but they all conclude with the same outcome. I really think he needs to be assessed in a year's time. We've got the players we need to make the extra step up to challenge for Europe next year as long as we get some good additions in the Summer. To think we could have done it all this year was a big ask. I don't care how much money you throw at a team it won't instantly sort everything out that needs to be sorted out. Teams take time to build and, with those new faces and the basis we've started to develop this year, if we get it right away from home next year and keep our home form then we'll be attracting players and winning those fucking silver things (I think they're called trophies) as
we improve.