we are 8-1 4th favourite for the drop..

[M18CTID]

The way I see it is that Hughes was probably the right choice at the time of his appointment but once the ADUG takeover happened the job was simply too big for him.

As black mamba said, Hughes is by no means a bad manager but he's by no means a great manager either. He's more suited to managing on lower transfer budgets IMO. However, I thought his sacking was badly timed - as he'd been given the opportunity to spend big in the summer 2009 transfer window I felt he deserved that whole season to see how his signings panned out. It made little sense to me to let him spend all that money then get shut a few months later.

In hindsight though, it's proved to be the right decision. Mancini is clearly an upgrade on Hughes. Can we honestly say that we'd be sat here today as Premier League champions if Hughes was still in charge? I'd have to say the answer to that is no.

 

[Shaelumstash]

agreed, no way could hughes attract silva and co, said it many times. i have never "dismissed" mancini but nor will i dismiss sparky. they both played a part in where we are now.

Your opinion of Mancini, unless I'm going crazy, was once very negative and you were convinced he wouldn't win us trophies.

you have the wrong guy, i was negative about him being negative, which he was, in fact pathetically so. i have never said he'd not win us out, in fact i went to a fans forum and put him straight :) once he'd got a grasp of the prem he's been outstanding.

So pathetic that we finished 3rd, with the same points as 2nd, and won our first trophy in 34 years in his first full season! Good job you made him see the error of his ways!

 

[Bill]

Your opinion of Mancini, unless I'm going crazy, was once very negative and you were convinced he wouldn't win us trophies.

you have the wrong guy, i was negative about him being negative, which he was, in fact pathetically so. i have never said he'd not win us out, in fact i went to a fans forum and put him straight :) once he'd got a grasp of the prem he's been outstanding.

So pathetic that we finished 3rd, with the same points as 2nd, and won our first trophy in 34 years in his first full season! Good job you made him see the error of his ways!

No need to thank me, it was a labour of love.

 

[mike winterwasp]

you have the wrong guy, i was negative about him being negative, which he was, in fact pathetically so. i have never said he'd not win us out, in fact i went to a fans forum and put him straight :) once he'd got a grasp of the prem he's been outstanding.

So pathetic that we finished 3rd, with the same points as 2nd, and won our first trophy in 34 years in his first full season! Good job you made him see the error of his ways!

No need to thank me, it was a labour of love.

Ah, delusion. De Niro?

 

[Shaelumstash]

you have the wrong guy, i was negative about him being negative, which he was, in fact pathetically so. i have never said he'd not win us out, in fact i went to a fans forum and put him straight :) once he'd got a grasp of the prem he's been outstanding.

So pathetic that we finished 3rd, with the same points as 2nd, and won our first trophy in 34 years in his first full season! Good job you made him see the error of his ways!

No need to thank me, it was a labour of love.

Ok then, I'll make sure I don't. Great to see you back Mancini now though, takes real character realise when you got it wrong.

 

[mammyjam]

the op is taking about when we drew at home vrs blackpool, i remember it well I'd got $10 free on a pokersite and ran it up to $300 in about two weeks, city were 1/3 to win so i stuck $150 of my hard earned bankroll on em to win $50. Its like buying money i thought!

Can't remember it that well we didn't play Blackpool that season... We played Blackpool new years day 2011 and won 1-0

 

[mammyjam]

All debate on this subject died at approximately 16.57, May 13, 2012. Roberto had taken all the flack, all the jibes, kept his mouth shut and built a team that won the title, showed mighty team spirit to win from 8 points down with 6 to play, 2-1 down in the second minute of stoppage time, having played some of the best football ever played in the PL. The owners got it right.

with half of sparky's players.

Eh?

There are 3 players that regularly play that were signed by Hughes: Kompany, Barry and Lescott.

Kompany has turned out to be a great signing, but under Hughes he was poor. Hughes had him in central midfield and someone bumped a thread from 09 or 2010 with about 10 pages slating Kompany about how he isn't good enough.

Barry was a decent signing for a "respectable" price (considering his other buys) but Barry's performances didn't really pick up until Hughes had gone.

Lescott at the time was a shocking signing in my book. Not because I don't rate Lescott, just at the time he was in no way a £22 million pound defender. The whole saga of his signing was embarrassing, it lasted all summer with Moyes slagging us off and us getting ripped in the papers about tapping him up or whatever. The sad thing about it is, Hughes made an even worse "value-for-money" signing in Santa fucking Cruz. But, as with Kompany, as soon as Hughes left and Mancini took over his performances started to pick up and now Lescott looks a top defender.

Hughes was stupid enough to buy Given and try to farm Hart off elsewhere. He brought Tevez and his **** of an agent to the club and allowed them to run the show. The signing of de Jong was a poor one as well, de Jong had 6 months left on his contract and we paid £18 million pounds for him, he's not even an £18 million pound player if he had 5 years left on a contract. Adebayor is another example of a poor signing, he played well in his first 4 games and then gave up, another £25 million spunked down the drain, not forgetting his ridiculous wages which means we're not stuck with him.

Irrespective of how well we've done since, Hughes is simply a piss poor manager.

While I agree with the seniment that Hughes was piss poor you've fallen foe the media myth that NDJ had 6 months left on his contract when in fact he'd signed a new 5 year deal 2 months before we paid £16m for him

 

[mammyjam]

I don't think Mark Hughes was that bad a manager , but bein' an ex-rag , he had his haters from the start .....

he did okay during his time here , as he had at Blackburn , but it's Mancini who has instilled greater consistency into our results ...... and it's that which has paid off .

Not that even he has had it all his own way ...... he was too cautious in his early days here , and he's finally realised , not before time either , that my policy is better than his ......

that being , give teams more problems than they can give you and you've got a much better chance of winning football matches!

I'd argue that sparky's results were very consistent... Just a shame they were consistently draws

 

[M18CTID]

All debate on this subject died at approximately 16.57, May 13, 2012. Roberto had taken all the flack, all the jibes, kept his mouth shut and built a team that won the title, showed mighty team spirit to win from 8 points down with 6 to play, 2-1 down in the second minute of stoppage time, having played some of the best football ever played in the PL. The owners got it right.

with half of sparky's players.

Eh?

There are 3 players that regularly play that were signed by Hughes: Kompany, Barry and Lescott.

Kompany has turned out to be a great signing, but under Hughes he was poor. Hughes had him in central midfield and someone bumped a thread from 09 or 2010 with about 10 pages slating Kompany about how he isn't good enough.

Barry was a decent signing for a "respectable" price (considering his other buys) but Barry's performances didn't really pick up until Hughes had gone.

Lescott at the time was a shocking signing in my book. Not because I don't rate Lescott, just at the time he was in no way a £22 million pound defender. The whole saga of his signing was embarrassing, it lasted all summer with Moyes slagging us off and us getting ripped in the papers about tapping him up or whatever. The sad thing about it is, Hughes made an even worse "value-for-money" signing in Santa fucking Cruz. But, as with Kompany, as soon as Hughes left and Mancini took over his performances started to pick up and now Lescott looks a top defender.

Hughes was stupid enough to buy Given and try to farm Hart off elsewhere. He brought
Tevez and his **** of an agent to the club and allowed them to run the show. The signing of de Jong was a poor one as well, de Jong had 6 months left on his contract and we paid £18 million pounds for him, he's not even an £18 million pound player if he had 5 years left on a contract. Adebayor is another example of a poor signing, he played well in his first 4 games and then gave up, another £25 million spunked down the drain, not forgetting his ridiculous wages which means we're not stuck with him.

Irrespective of how well we've done since, Hughes is simply a piss poor manager.

You make some good points but there's a lot of revisionist shit in there.

Mancini has indeed gotten more out of some of Hughes' signings than Hughes did but as already stated NDJ had just signed a new contract at Hamburg. Lescott did indeed have a shaky start, however he was already coming into good form before Hughes was sacked but then picked up an injury that kept him out until a good few weeks into Mancini's reign. Kompany was never a poor player under Hughes - he just wasn't being played in his best position. As for Given, well I don't remember a single dissenting voice when he was signed. Every City fan I know welcomed his signing and saw him as a better 'keeper than Hart at that time. Tevez was probably as much a Khaldoon/Cook signing as he was a Hughes signing so I don't see what the issue is there. Besides, were you moaning about that one back when he first signed? Somehow, I doubt it. Adebayor, for all his issues, was considered to be a damn good striker at the time and again, I don't seem to remember many (if any) City fans moaning about him signing. The only true stinker of a signing was RSC.

What makes me laugh is that you imply that Hughes was responsible for negotiating all the big money contracts for these players when the reality is that that side of things probably had nothing to do with him. And besides, what type of players did you expect a team that had just finished 10th in the league to attract? And whoever was managing the club at the time, we would've had to overpay on transfers and wages to attract a better calibre of player to the club.

 

[Bill]

with half of sparky's players.

Eh?

There are 3 players that regularly play that were signed by Hughes: Kompany, Barry and Lescott.

Kompany has turned out to be a great signing, but under Hughes he was poor. Hughes had him in central midfield and someone bumped a thread from 09 or 2010 with about 10 pages slating Kompany about how he isn't good enough.

Barry was a decent signing for a "respectable" price (considering his other buys) but Barry's performances didn't really pick up until Hughes had gone.

Lescott at the time was a shocking signing in my book. Not because I don't rate Lescott, just at the time he was in no way a £22 million pound defender. The whole saga of his signing was embarrassing, it lasted all summer with Moyes slagging us off and us getting ripped in the papers about tapping him up or whatever. The sad thing about it is, Hughes made an even worse "value-for-money" signing in Santa fucking Cruz. But, as with Kompany, as soon as Hughes left and Mancini took over his performances started to pick up and now Lescott looks a top defender.

Hughes was stupid enough to buy Given and try to farm Hart off elsewhere. He brought
Tevez and his **** of an agent to the club and allowed them to run the show. The signing of de Jong was a poor one as well, de Jong had 6 months left on his contract and we paid £18 million pounds for him, he's not even an £18 million pound player if he had 5 years left on a contract. Adebayor is another example of a poor signing, he played well in his first 4 games and then gave up, another £25 million spunked down the drain, not forgetting his ridiculous wages which means we're not stuck with him.

Irrespective of how well we've done since, Hughes is simply a piss poor manager.

You make some good points but there's a lot of revisionist shit in there.

Mancini has indeed gotten more out of some of Hughes' signings than Hughes did but as already stated NDJ had just signed a new contract at Hamburg. Lescott did indeed have a shaky start, however he was already coming into good form before Hughes was sacked but then picked up an injury that kept him out until a good few weeks into Mancini's reign. Kompany was never a poor player under Hughes - he just wasn't being played in his best position. As for Given, well I don't remember a single dissenting voice when he was signed. Every City fan I know welcomed his signing and saw him as a better 'keeper than Hart at that time. Tevez was probably as much a Khaldoon/Cook signing as he was a Hughes signing so I don't see what the issue is there. Besides, were you moaning about that one back when he first signed? Somehow, I doubt it. Adebayor, for all his issues, was considered to be a damn good striker at the time and again, I don't seem to remember many (if any) City fans moaning about him signing. The only true stinker of a signing was RSC.

What makes me laugh is that you imply that Hughes was responsible for negotiating all the big money contracts for these players when the reality is that that side of things probably had nothing to do with him. And besides, what type of players did you expect a team that had just finished 10th in the league to attract? And whoever was managing the club at the time, we would've had to overpay on transfers and wages to attract a better calibre of player to the club.

the way i see it is it started with Frank, we were in dire trouble and Frank although not ideal was a way forward, forward that is from oblivion. he bought players and a manager to start the comeback of all comebacks. then hughes came in and that was the best we could get at the time.the players he bought were yet again a step further forward in our project, yes you can question some but others turned out to be great buys, all in all hughes served his purpose, in fairness where we were at there was no way we would have signed yaya, silva and co, mancini too for that matter.once that regime was flagging the owners identified the man and the players to take us where we are now, i believe (and will never alter my view) that mancini could have done it quicker with the funds and players available.he was far too negative, i loved the man, his class, his handling of the press, everything except some of his substitutions and tactics. we were of course no longer getting beat every 5 minutes so although stomach turningly boring at times you could see the progress.
once he pushed the "football" button though we were flying, it was fantastic to watch and proud to be associated to the best team in the country. now the man had all his inner qualities previously mentioned but had now added a brilliant brand of football and of course winning things, add that to the way he brushed fergie aside with his yap yap hand gesture and he's become a ledgend in my eyes.
so the bottom line is Frank was progress, Hughes was progress, elano, ade, bellamy and co, all progress, i think its all been worth it to be where are right now.

can we progress past mancini? i dont think so.