[Archived] Sparky - Not A Great Manager?

[Rover4ever]

Arabs are notoriously impatient with managers.

Al Ain, UAE's most supported team, sacked their coach of 2 years, for the big crime of losing to the 2nd placed team at an early stage of the season....

Al Ain were 3rd and it was unforgiveable for the powers that they lost ground on the title race by losing to the 2nd placed team.

If Man City's owners had the same advisors as Al Ain, Hughes would have been sacked the moment he lost his first game of the season.

[thenodrog]

Mancini reportedly seen at the game, really classy move by City...

Really? Must say I'd expect nothing else from that slimeball Gary Cook. The golfing holiday in Portugal that Hughes went on 2 years ago with him was bad news all around. Oh well 'Icarus and Daedelus' keeps being replayed doesn't it? Hughes's wings have melted. Like so many before him he has fallen victim to the curse of leaving Blackburn Rovers.

Yet again the stupidity of signing players on longer contracts than the average managerial tenure sees another manager bite the dust. Why on earth City offer long contracts when they are also the top payers is something that I really struggle with. If Hughes had been able to get the rotten apples out of the barrell he'd have had a much better chance of success.

I must admit to wanting some success for Hughes at City in the knowledge that to do so might see one of the big 4 crash and burn, but now I'm afraid I'd love to see the gypsy curse continue apace.

Just as an aside Bentley's just seen one of his best 'get out of gaol' cards wither and die.

[RovertheHill]

Well i would have to disagree he did better himself looking from his perspective, he went to a club with a bigger fanbase, got a bigger wage, had a genuine target to achieve, had a bigger transfer budget and got to enjoy his shot in the limelight.

When he started as rovers manager he was hardly born with blue and white skin it was just a job plain and simple and in job terms more money and a greater challenge represent a step up in some peoples eyes.

If you start work at mcdonalds flipping burgers then get offered a job at burger king as a mangager with more money and more responsibilty would you take it ? the answer depends on the individual, whether they want the challenge, the extra money, the stress and the knowledge that if they fail to achieve thier targets there going to get fired, do you stay safe or do you try to better yourself? As sparky was very early in his management career he has plenty of time to pick up the pieces and leaving rovers as the time he did was just a natural progression for any manager wanting to learn their trade.

What did he learn there? maybe like so many people and players that have left rovers that the grass is not always greener, i suppose we will never know.

If you think that Rovers is flipping burgers and Man City is the Burger king manager then I think you need to sort out your analogy. He got no more responsibility at Man City than he did at Rovers. In fact, I would argue he got less. The responsibility of spending money at Rovers is far greater than at Man City because it is so much harder to come by. He may have had more expectation to deal with but that's it really.

However, all of your arguments are simply making my point for me. He saw this simply as a job and a stepping stone. It was a symbiotic relationship whilst it lasted. However, he's not been here for 18 months, and as you rightly point out he has little or no affinity for this club. So why should we have any sympathy for him? You dance with the devil and this is what happens.

It makes me laugh that people either think he would come back or that we should try to get him back. Get real.

[Majiball]

Not a City fan, but looking in as an outsider I thought Hughes was very much on the right track. Possibly as a Rovers fan I'm biased because we know from his time at Ewood what a good manager he is, and what a good team he has in Mark Bowen and Eddie N.

However if the decision to sack him is harsh, the decision to replace him with Mancini and Kidd is laughable. Hiddink or Mourinho you might have said "harsh but understandable."

As for Rovers in an ideal world I'd have Hughes and just as importantly his backroom team back in a flash. Unfortunately this isn't ann ideal world and we probably couldn't afford to sack Allardyce even if we got to the point where we wanted to and Hughes would probably never come back to the Club with disinterested owners who were the reason he ended u so keen to get away in the first place.

No but if Damien Roden has been sacked as well, then we should be driving to his home as we speak. One of the best applied sports scientists in the game, sign him up Rovers.

Really? Must say I'd expect nothing else from that slimeball Gary Cook. The golfing holiday in Portugal that Hughes went on 2 years ago with him was bad news all around. Oh well 'Icarus and Daedelus' keeps being replayed doesn't it? Hughes's wings have melted. Like so many before him he has fallen victim to the curse of leaving Blackburn Rovers.

Yet again the stupidity of signing players on longer contracts than the average managerial tenure sees another manager bite the dust. Why on earth City offer long contracts when they are also the top payers is something that I really struggle with. If Hughes had been able to get the rotten apples out of the barrell he'd have had a much better chance of success.

I must admit to wanting some success for Hughes at City in the knowledge that to do so might see one of the big 4 crash and burn, but now I'm afraid I'd love to see the gypsy curse continue apace.

Just as an aside Bentley's just seen one of his best 'get out of gaol' cards wither and die.

The Way Man ###### have gone about this is disgraceful.

[Paul]

Well I like Sparky, he always seems like a decent man. I don't think he should be asked back to Ewood but wish him well in the future while hoping City crash and burn.

[tcj_jones]

Sacking Sparky I can understand, although I feel it was the wrong decision: firstly because I didn't feel performances were overly bad with a poor defence largely to blame, secondly because I still feel City would have landed fourth spot and thirdly because I know Hughes is a great manager.

However, replacing him with a man that lowered his standards so much that he left Inter (after going through the motions of winning a league that had ZERO competitiveness) to then apply, and fail, for vacant managers positions at Chelsea, Rovers, West Ham and, finally, Sunderland. This guy has been passed up numerous times and been out of the game for a year-and-a-half. There must be a reason.

I think City will still get fourth and they may well win a cup, but I think Hughes would have done that anyway.

[imy9]

Sacking Sparky I can understand, although I feel it was the wrong decision: firstly because I didn't feel performances were overly bad with a poor defence largely to blame, secondly because I still feel City would have landed fourth spot and thirdly because I know Hughes is a great manager.

However, replacing him with a man that lowered his standards so much that he left Inter (after going through the motions of winning a league that had ZERO competitiveness) to then apply, and fail, for vacant managers positions at Chelsea, Rovers, West Ham and, finally, Sunderland. This guy has been passed up numerous times and been out of the game for a year-and-a-half. There must be a reason.

I think City will still get fourth and they may well win a cup, but I think Hughes would have done that anyway.

Mancini was turned down by nobody, he has only recently been paid up by Inter- he was on gardening leave.

[RoyRover]

Hughes never left us in the lurch. He left to enhance his managerial career, which is exactly what anyone of us would do if we removed our blue & white spectacles. And think of the profit he brought here with his signings, one of whom will probably make us another mint next year.

He has shown a complete lack of respect for the club that gave him his chance and which he did very well for. He was the one making all the noises about his best players not leaving Blackburn because he wanted to build something and before you know it, he's sitting doing a Manchester City press conference. His departure gave Friedal, Bentley and eventually Santa Cruz and Warnock the excuse to move on. His pursuit of Santa Cruz was a distasteful to say the least - how many different ways can you say 'no, he's not for sale.' This was overshadowed by how he signed Jolean Lescott, which was a disgrace. He and Manchester City deserve what they get. Mancini isn't going to turn it around and the owners chase for instant success will just go on and on.

[Anti Euro Smiths Fan]

Bellamy is revolting....

One of the Sunday tabloids today claims that Craig Bellamy is among a number of angry Man City players furious with the "shabby treatment" of Mark Hughes.

The News Of The World claims that Bellamy and Shay Given led a six-man delegation to confront Garry Cook after Hughes made an emotional speech in the dressing room confirming that he had been sacked.

A dressing room source told the paper: "There is a huge amount of loyalty towards Mark, the players respect him as a manager and they can't believe he's being treated as shabbily as this. It's been done without any class whatsoever. The players were getting messages on their mobiles telling them what was going on and they decided they had to do something.

"The players know who is behind this - Gary Cook and Brian Marwood. Six of them decided they had to say and do something so they went looking for them after the game."

The Mail On Sunday also pinpoints Marwood and Cook over the sacking of Hughes. Former Arsenal winger Marwood, who won the league title under George Graham in 1989 and who gained a solitary England cap under Bobby Robson, arrived at Man City as the club's football administrator to be the board's eyes and ears.

Marwood is reportedly a close friend and Nike colleague of Garry Cook and the Mail On Sunday claims that "civil war erupted" between Marwood and Cook on one side and the all-Welsh managerial team on the other side.

The Times says that Hughes felt let down by Robinho, Emmanuel Adebayor and Nigel de Jong and made a point of dropping those three players for the Sunderland game.

The Observer says that the decision by Hughes to replace Richard Dunne, who has played well for Aston Villa this season, replacing him with £22m Joleon Lescott, was a poor move which proved to be significant in Hughes losing his job.

A link below to what the various Sunday papers had to say about the Hughes sacking:

LINK HERE

[Fylde Coast Fan]

Hughes has been sacked before his time, possibly, but it's hard to feel too much sympathy for the man. Most of us would have looked at the mess of Newcastle after almost ending up there and realised the grass isn't always greener on the richer side, but Sparky took a gamble on his abilities as a manager and appears to have been found lacking.

He's still pretty young for a top flight manager and he's got plenty of time to learn from his mistakes at City.

Meanwhile, Mancini walks into all the same dilemmas Hughes has been dealing with. The owners will expect to see big money signings like Adebayor, Robinho and Lescott playing every game they can - but none of them have earned their place lately. Bellamy is one of a growing number of unfashionable players in the Prem who are unstoppable at the moment - along with the likes of Lee Bowyer and Bobby Zamora. Form beats brand recognition every time, unless you're a businessman like Cook.

[American]

Bellamy is revolting....

Correct, but he is a quality player.

[Mattyblue]

Correct, but he is a quality player.

Loved him at Ewood, for me the best since Shearer, would have loved to have seen him and Santa Cruz together for us.

He gets a bad press, but it is just his total desire to see players give their all and win.

[DE.]

If Bellamy could cut the annoying antics out of his game he'd be the complete package. On S-ccer Saturday Tony Cottee said that taking that out of the game would alter Bellamy as a player, but I disagree. He can still retain his level of skill and enthusiasm without having to moan and moan and moan at the ref until he gets booked. One of the few signings Hughes made that genuinely made a difference to City's team.

[tcj_jones]

I think one of the reasons I'm disappointed by this, is that we were finally starting to see Roque and Bellamy playing together in the same team. I doubt Roque will start on a regular basis and I wouldn't be surprised if Mancini take a bit of a dislike to Bellamy (and vice-versa).

Does anybody know an awful lot about Mancini? What sort of football do his sides play?

[Bobby G]

Defensive football.

Inter despite the players they had were a very defensive side, playing counter-attacking robust football.

They thought theyd change it by getting Mourinho!

Mancini is not that highly rated by many "followers" of the world game.

There is a reason why he has been skipped over for about 18 months in any of the biggest appointments in world football.

He is not the right man for them, I dont think at least.

However, considering the money they have, I can see relative success.

[FourLaneBlue]

Rigid 4-4-2 as far as I recall and he did not seem like much of a tactician. When at Inter his sides flopped in Europe and while the titles look impressive there were won in the weakest Italian league there has been in living memory. In fact in his first title-winning season he only finished third before Juventus and Milan were punished. They finished 15 points behind Juve before the scandal broke. The next two seasons Juve and Milan were basically out of the running. Inter spent far more than their only real rival, AS Roma, and so won their titles in a somewhat strange fashion. That he was sacked after winning 3 titles must say something about Mancini.

Not surprised at all by Hughes being sacked. Lucky to be in the job this season and with another 200million+ spent he needed to be off to a flyer. Only 1 win in last 10 league games before yesterday suggest that he really cannot have too much to complain about. The stakes have been well and truly raised and I am not surprised he has gone. Just at his replacement. Surely they could thrown open their checkbook at Hiddink and get an awesome manager with Prem managerial experience in.

This article is somewhat damning of Hughes at City...

Mark Hughes's signings prove that big-budget management is beyond him

Certainly it seems true that his best buys (at both Ewood and COMS) have been when he has either known the player before or has been scouting around for a bargain.

[tcj_jones]

.

[Bobby G]

Hiddinks move was vetoed by Roman. Its well documented that he could've moved to anyone else but City.

I also agree that for what he has spent, Hughes shouldve done more in a season when the top sides are considerably weaker than they have been in many years. I also think he overpaid for almost all his players and many of them will not be rated by Mancini.

[dillhallblue]

I wonder if Nicko is going to shed any more light on the events of the last 24/48 hours at Eastlands ? He's been rather quiet today !! There must be some fascinating tales to come out of there.

By the way its awful seeing any manager treated like this i.e. Jol & Curbishley are two off top of my head but when its someone someone who gave 100 per cent as a player then manager for your club, no matter how they left, it does leave a sour taste in the mouth.

[tcj_jones]

Mancini was turned down by nobody, he has only recently been paid up by Inter- he was on gardening leave.

Really? Because I remember Mancini declaring his interest in the the Chelsea, Sunderland and West Ham jobs and I'm pretty sure Nicko said he applied for the Rovers job too. He was a front runner in the betting markets for the first three vacancies.

[dillhallblue]

Really? Because I remember Mancini declaring his interest in the the Chelsea, Sunderland and West Ham jobs and I'm pretty sure Nicko said he applied for the Rovers job too. He was a front runner in the betting markets for the first three vacancies.

Apparentley we spoke to Mancini before we appointed Big Sam.

Maybe Nicko might be able to confirm this.

[Bobby G]

I think it was documented at the time that we did. Although it may have been to simply be respectful to him due to his application, and that our minds had already been made up.

[Elegia]

Can't say I am surprised City have sacked Hughes. City have always been a bit of a joke club as far as their board goes.

Hughes is another manager who has left Rovers by being tempted by a so called bigger club and money and fallen flat on his face. He didn't do a bad job at City, but didn't set the world on fire. Money isn't everything and with a tenth of the money he had at City he would have done much better at Rovers than he did with $200m at City. Future Rovers managers beware the grass isn't always greener at a bigger club - the last 2 managers will tell you that. Sam knows too.

He was onto a good thing at Rovers - a board, fans and players that respected him and let him do the job he was doing. He chose to leave at a time when he said he couldn't take us further without more money. Well it just goes to show that even with spending $200m it doesn't guarantee a winning team - possibly he couldn't take us any further because he didn't have the ability to motivate the players any further than he had. He obviously couldn't motivate the so called best players he signed at City otherwise on paper they should thrash everyone every week.

Hughes is old Rovers news now and we have moved on, not for the better either, which is sad but to put things into perspective I am a very happy Rovers fan. The team I started supporting in 1987 almost looked like being a top flight club for a couple of years, then a certain Mr Walker came along. My footballing dreams came true on that fateful day at Anfield when we lifted the premier league trophy - a probably never to be repeated event in my lifetime. And just to be in the premier league still surpasses any expectations I had as a spotty teenager stood on the Blackburn end in 87.

[Amo]

I don't understand this? Why should I remove my blue and white spectacles?

Because Mark Hughes isn't a Blackburn Rovers fan?

He wanted to further his career with a bigger opportunity. Players do it, managers do it, we do it in our own professions. We were well compensated for it and given the chance to build on his success (which was our own screw-up). And like I said, he left with us with a host of bankable assets to balance our books.

[John]

Because Mark Hughes isn't a Blackburn Rovers fan?

He wanted to further his career with a bigger opportunity. Players do it, managers do it, we do it in our own professions. We were well compensated for it and given the chance to build on his success (which was our own screw-up). And like I said, he left with us with a host of bankable assets to balance our books.

Correct, need to look after number one.