Interesting thread this. Cook's already said that Marwood won't be a Director of Football after hughes made his opposition clear. So what's he going to be doing i wonder i'm not quite clear. Surely as far as scouting is concerned we're well covered at youth level and as for the senior, hughes has proved himself adept, certainly from the Bundesliga. Are we then talking about improving our scouting network in the domestic lower leagues, an area where we have failed miserably for many years, although everton and villa apart, not many of the big clubs take chances in this area. I've met Marwood years ago, at lilleshall Football academy in Shropshire, remember that! I was a radio reporter interviewing Doug Ellis and a few others , anyway marwood is introduced and he was bringing over a load of football boots (maybe nike) Anyway, he seemed switched on, not the usual brand of ex-footballer, and very much a people person. I reckon he's not just mates with cook but hughes as well. Have you noticed when he used to summarise for sky he was always refering to hughes as mark and i very much got the impression that he knew him, liked him and wanted him to succeed. So maybe he will be a footballing link between hughes and the board and the media where i can see him kicking a fe arses. As for transfers, kaka didn't really want to come but we actually needed an agent, and cook's mistake was thinking that we can do without them when dealing with transfers. There's no way that an experienced agent would have let cook to not deal with the issue of wages first and foremost. Overall, i agree the set up looks very much like hughes will get another season. I've been very much in the pro-hughes camp, as opposed to a mate who hated him from the off just because of his united background. But now i'm leaning towards the position of if he's stays, fine, if he goes, fine, as long as a top manager is brought in. I'll forgive managers a lot but the fact that we now have are third straight negative minded manager is a concern. Lining up basically with 8 defensive minded players will never get us anywhere. In the words of Tony soprano, "i'm old school." If we have the ball then the opposition can't score.
