The Spark that created the fire! (Mark Hughes)

[BlueTG]

In defence of Hughes, and this is one of my only defences of him, Kompany was a "promising young defensive midfielder".

Mancini however saw his ability to make it as one of the top centre backs in the world and that there is what Hughes couldn't/wouldn't have seen. One of the many things that highlights the short comings of "the best young British manager".

But yeah, Hughes was shite.

 

[BigJoe#1]

at Manchester City for signing Pablo Zabaleta for £6.45 Million and Vincent Kompany for £6 Million. I for one will salute you for starting our fabulous side that will become City Legends.

anybody who thinks this guys clueless needs to give their head a wobble.

Thank you Mark

Complete and utter rubbish, Hughes was, is and always will be a clown. The further he is away from our club the batter!

 

[supercity88]

People seem to forget the context of Hughes' term in charge. We weren't Chelsea. We weren't the rags, or Arsenal, or Liverpool. We couldn't go from shite to top of the league. We couldn't buy Aguero and other world class talents at that stage. The only play we had was the money card. But Hughes decided rather than take a punt on some expensive foreigners he would spend money on players he knew and had worked with before and were proven in the league, and then spend smaller amounts of prospects from abroad. It was a sound plan.

Where you questiong it is the amounts he spent - but we were held to ranson, and the thinking behind the likes of Santa Cruz in particular. Those players did make us a slightly better team and indeed Zabaleta and Kompany are two instrumental players. But Mancini came and transformed us and managed to attract better calibre players and get that attacking/defensive balance. This summer represents an opportunity, under Pellegrini to add those final pieces to our squad and start to challenge on all fronts. I don't call Hughes a clown because there was some strategy to his thinking. But I do think he was a bit out of his depth, as Moyes was at the Rags. Players on huge wages need a different management strategy than those further down the league. If Yaya doesn't but his gut all game long do you drop him for someone less talented but harder working? You do at Blackburn, you can't at the top. You have to manage them effectively unless you've proven yourself as that sort of manager and bought players who like that management style. Ultimately we can't do that because we have a squad that prefers a more nurturing approach to things, as Pellegrini delivers.

 

[Neville Kneville]

Did a great job in extremely difficult circumstances & created the backbone of our title winning team, gave Hart the opportunity to learn his trade out of the limelight & us to use a keeper with much better distribution as we made the transition from defenders always hitting it long, to learning to play from the back.

One hell of an achievement to build the spine of a title winning side whilst going through all that shit, with people selling players behind his back & the club facing bankruptcy .

Bob or Pellgrini wouldn't have touched us with a barge pole at that time, nor would most decent managers. It would have been career suicide.

 

[The Fat el Hombre]

Did a great job in extremely difficult circumstances & created the backbone of our title winning team, gave Hart the opportunity to learn his trade out of the limelight & us to use a keeper with much better distribution as we made the transition from defenders always hitting it long, to learning to play from the back.

One hell of an achievement to build the spine of a title winning side whilst going through all that shit, with people selling players behind his back & the club facing bankruptcy .

Bob or Pellgrini wouldn't have touched us with a barge pole at that time, nor would most decent managers. It would have been career suicide.

Not sure if this one's serious or not bt I'm gonna respond anyway:

Hart was doing fine before Hughes brought in an extremely limited and ageing keeper to replace him, which pissed Joe off and we nearly lost Englands number 1 for the next decade or so because Hughes wanted another short term comfort zone signing. Luckily clueless was sacked before Joe jumped ship and Mancini sorted this situation. Given's distribution was shit btw. He was a shot stopper, very little more. In truth he was nowhere near a top keeper, absolutely nowhere near.

Hughes didn't build anything, apart from a gym. People go on about him getting the foundations in place behind the scenes but it seems that all that consisted of was asking the Sheikh for a few new treadmills. There is little credit to be given in signing a few good players when you're given hundreds of millions to spend, particularly when you don't know what the fuck to do with any of them. IIRC only one player was sold without Hughes' consent - Corluka, who was poorly suited to the right back position in the english game (way too slow and immobile) and was replaced the same summer by Zaba anyway.

And we were already playing it form the back, much better, under Sven the previous season

 

[Far_southerner]

I have read all this thread in order to improve my understanding of this club. Very interesting. Regarding Hugues, I din't know who he was, so I did my research. An excellent career as a player and a not very impressive as a manager, despite having being a national team one. So, there is something that I would like to know, because not all british traditions are clear to me (british, yes). As I have read, this guy is a OBE... so, who deserves this honour? I think that it was not awarded to him due his managerial career, so I guess it was as a footballer... so, what is needed to do as a footballer to obtain such an honour? Thanks.

 

[chrishull]

I have read all this thread in order to improve my understanding of this club. Very interesting. Regarding Hugues, I din't know who he was, so I did my research. An excellent career as a player and a not very impressive as a manager, despite having being a national team one. So, there is something that I would like to know, because not all british traditions are clear to me (british, yes). As I have read, this guy is a OBE... so, who deserves this honour? I think that it was not awarded to him due his managerial career, so I guess it was as a footballer... so, what is needed to do as a footballer to obtain such an honour? Thanks.

Playing for united helps.

 

[blueinsa]

Useless **** along with his band of merry men that tags along with him and that's being kind.

 

[RandomJ]

I'm sorry I'm not having him being labelled the "spark that created the fire". He was woefully out of his depth, wasted a lot of our owners money and there's no way he personally scouted Vinnie so im not giving him the credit for those signings either. His signings were the obvious ones like the perma crock Santa Cruz.

 

[sir baconface]

People seem to forget the context of Hughes' term in charge. We weren't Chelsea. We weren't the rags, or Arsenal, or Liverpool. We couldn't go from shite to top of the league. We couldn't buy Aguero and other world class talents at that stage. The only play we had was the money card. But Hughes decided rather than take a punt on some expensive foreigners he would spend money on players he knew and had worked with before and were proven in the league, and then spend smaller amounts of prospects from abroad. It was a sound plan.

In defending him, you've stumbled on his greatest weakness. Hughes had neither the confidence nor the panache to get the best out of anyone unless they matched those criteria. He was in his comfort zone with journeyman players who "owed" him and clueless with star players or freer spirits.

On a related note, despite his glittering playing career, he totally lacked X factor as a manager. He was dour and mumbling with zero pizzazz and limited vision. Always quick to blame and slow to accept accountability.