O Neill is trying to build something at Villa and has financial backing, so I am not sure he would take the job (if offered).

Six weeks without Benni and who else will be missing?

Here we go again!! SAVAGE ATTACK ON TOSHACK

Fair enough - article is below! Stereotypes appeal because they allow us not to think, and thinking is hard work. We all know that football teams are crammed with arrogant, foul-mouthed young men and managed by raging, yelling middle-aged men. And then you meet Mark Hughes, and you have to do some thinking. Hughes was a player of great distinction for almost twenty years. His on-field demeanour was highly combative, but this belied a personality in the dressing room which was quiet and private. He once said of his early career, thrown from the tranquillity of his native Welsh village to the glare of the Manchester United first team, that he “used to do the training, go back to my digs and sleep, and that was the sum total of my day.” And now Hughes is the intelligent and articulate manager of a Blackburn Rovers team that has progressed markedly in the Premiership during his three-year tenure, just as the Wales national team did when Hughes took his first step into management, back in 1999. His success threatens another stubborn stereotype, this time surrounding the ideal personality make-up of a manager, either in football or in business. Place a young Hughes in one of those assessment centres that large companies are so fond of, and you can bet your house that he would not have been selected for any “high-potential leadership pipeline”. Ostentatiously taking the lead in a group exercise, or loudly promoting himself, would not have been the Hughes way. Hughes had other, much less easily identifiable, qualities. Many footballers, like many lawyers and sales people, are excellent at their jobs, but initiate any discussion with them about the strategic challenges of their industry, or how to make their company more productive, and their eyes may well glaze over. Their suitability for a management role is therefore questionable. Hughes, on the other hand, had a broader perspective. He was an observer, a thinker: “I was always a student of the game. I enjoyed playing games against foreign opposition because they posed us different problems. The tactical side interested me. I like to look at a situation and work out my views, rather than flying in with shouting and bawling.” As a manager, he has not had the luxury of being able to recruit expensive talent. At Wales, he was restricted by the pool of players available in the country. At Blackburn, he is limited by a relatively tight budget, so far spending only a net £7 million on transfer fees. He has for the most part had to content himself with coaxing the very best out of the people at his disposal. So what then are his methods? Hughes believes that firm managerial control over the direction of an organisation or team need not result from old-style autocratic methods. His approach is more subtle and, arguably, more permanent. You know when you are managing well when your people start not needing to be managed: “I don’t have to shout and bawl. I’ve tried to create a certain standard, and make everyone aware of where that standard is, the level of performance that is required. I’d like this standard to be self-regulated by the players. They drop below those standards, and they know themselves now.” A one-person crusade to create this pervasive culture of achievement and self-improvement wouldn’t get very far. He has known his management team of Mark Bowen, Eddie Niedzwiecki and Glyn Hodges for more than 20 years, and they all worked with him during his time at Wales. He trusts them unreservedly to reinforce the Hughes message: “They’re my voice right through the organisation. They have the same standards now, so it’s not just coming from the top.” They are not just his voice. They are his eyes and ears too. Hughes is so focused on extracting every last drop of potential from his squad that he needs to find out quickly why someone is distracted or falling below previous levels of performance. But he is also mindful of maintaining an emotional distance from the players (he never socialises with them, for instance) in order to preserve his natural managerial authority. He gets his coaches to do the detective work: “I’ll say to an assistant, “he’s a bit quiet today, you need to find out why, is his wife over yet?” You need to get the information to enable you to understand why someone is behaving in a certain way.” Developing an accurate understanding of what makes each specific individual tick is, Hughes thinks, fundamental to the skill of motivating others. “You’ve got to know the personalities in your group,” he says. Quite how difficult that task can be, and consequently how rare this managerial insight must be, is illustrated by Hughes’ own experience as a player. Here was the mild-mannered introvert who persistently excelled in the wake of the crudest of ear-bashings from as intimidating a character as his former manager, Sir Alex Ferguson: “If I got a rollicking, I’d feel they were totally out of order. I used to think “I’ll show you”. You’re not talking to me like that. I’ll show you what I’m all about. I’m sure my managers knew how I’d react.” Another motivational tool that Hughes uses is what he labels the “fear of failure”. He is at pains to stress that this is not what it sounds: “I don’t mean being so petrified about doing something wrong that you can’t function. When I was a player, the fear of failure was the fear of losing and a lot of people feeling quite happy that you’d fallen flat on your face. Don’t give anyone the opportunity to question whether you’re good enough, either individually or collectively.” One advantage that a sports coach has over most business managers is that team goals, such as winning a game or a competition, are naturally clear. Hughes is very aware of the effectiveness of targets in concentrating the mind and always makes them them immediate, concrete and achievable: “The season’s a long season. 60-odd games, a daunting prospect. It’s no good saying “we’re going to get 63 points this season and finish sixth”. You’ve got to chop the season down into more manageable sections. That way, the players can relate to the target, and they can think that it’s attainable.” The most important attribute of a successful manager, he believes, is self-evident expertise: “You’ve got to have the answers. You have to illustrate on the training pitch every scenario that you think might happen in a game, and demonstrate, day in, day out, that you know what you’re talking about. Because if you don’t, it just undermines your position.” If the team has overall confidence in the manager, they can focus on performing well without worrying whether their efforts are futile because the overall strategy is wrong. Many who knew Hughes as a player might have struggled to identify him as a future manager of substance. And perhaps the key lesson that business can learn from the Mark Hughes story concerns the vexed issue of selection. Lazy preconceptions can make you lose out on some of the best. It takes all sorts to be a manager. Mark Hughes – Lessons in Management • Set the standard, don’t micromanage When you take on a managerial role, make your team aware of the levels of commitment and performance you expect and constantly reaffirm this message. In time, team members should begin themselves to safeguard those standards. • Use your management team as a buffer To preserve a natural authority, a manager should preserve an emotional distance from his team. But a manager must also know what might be adversely affecting individual performance or the general mood in the camp. Your managerial assistants can get closer to the team and establish sources of discontent. • Understand each individual To be able to motivate others, you need to get to grips with the complexities of their personality. Work hard to understand what drives each individual. • Set crystal-clear, manageable targets Every team member must know exactly what he or she has to achieve if they are to be fully engaged in their work. Don’t set targets that are vague or too far in the long-term. • Know the answers Managerial self-belief will transmit itself to the team. Anticipate questions and criticisms, and make sure that you have a convincing answer ready.

David Bolchover (who writes for the Times and Telegraph) kindly sent me a copy of his article on Mark Hughes management style. David Bolchover is the co-author of The 90-Minute Manager book. I found it a very interesting read, and I think others on here will enjoy it as well. However, I only have this article as a word document, and it is too long to post on this thread (as it is quite a long article). Any suggestions how we could make this available for forum members??

I think when Hughes does move onto a bigger club, Bowen will almost surely move with him. Bowen and Eddie N are essential to Hughes management, and he has so much trust in them and they also have key roles. There is no way Hughes would want to work with anyone else. I also think that working as an assistant at Man Utd (for example) would be a much greater lure than being manager for us sadly.

Don't know why, but he always has to have a dig at Hughes. One of the first things he did when he took over at Wales was get rid of Hughes/Bowen Prozone system. Good to read his comments last night: "I will have to have a long hard look at myself and what I am doing here," said the 58-year-old. "After what I have seen in this match I am obviously doing something wrong... we were second best everywhere."

I think there is another thread on this somewhere, but old hippo ###### Toshack is at it again.......... Toshack with a thinly-veiled attack on Mark Hughes

I think it also depends if we are playing away or at home. For away matches, I feel more secure knowing we can put a shift in up front. Against Chelsea (for example), neither Benni or Cruz worked that hard for some reason. I think playing them together at home is not an issue, as we should be more the dominant team but I question whether it will work well away from home. I suppose time will tell, as we have not had enough games to judge yet, well I haven't (especially Cruz).

I wanted Roberts to start today's match instead of McCarthy. He will always put a shift in and can cause havoc in the opposition defence (especially against inferior teams).

Did anyone manage to read this in the end?? Sounds interesting....

Did anyone manage to read this in the end?? Sounds interesting....

At the time, I actually had nightmares over Dowie getting the job (not joking).

Article below which is slightly critical of Hughes reign as Wales manager........... http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0600soccer/...-name_page.html

McLaren to Bentley booing I don't remember you handling it too well McLaren when the press critiscism of you got out of hand a few months back.

On a couple of occasions tonight, Derbyshire has looked really quick. He has showed some nice touches and could/should have scored one more by now...

Will never forget you Jack.

Bentley was £500k.... Savage said it in the Sky studio last season when they were talking about him. I am guessing there could be add-ons though which Arsenal would have stupid not to include.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/arti...in_page_id=1779

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/arti...in_page_id=1779

Hughes - Benni is staying....

I am sure the club will make a comment on this soon enough. I remember when Barry Ferguson wanted to leave, Hughes did not react very kindly. Benni’s feet won’t touch the ground if he just refused to turn up.

What? Keeping your best players, prized assets is wrong?? I don't quite follow what you are saying, are you being sarcastic? You need to retain your key players and add to them if you are going to progress as a club.

People seem to think Hughes will replace McCarthy with ease. Selling Mcarthy will be the last resort for Sparky and you can gauge that from his comments on the matter at the end of last season. Whilst Hughes is an excellent judge of player, there was quite a bit of luck involved in Benni coming here. We were very close to signing Mido ahead of McCarthy last summer and I doubt Mido would have scored as many goals. Also, the Premiership trail went cold on MCarthy for some reason last summer and he may not have come here at all if other clubs registered their interest. In addition, we got McCarthy for peanuts because of his situation at Porto. Replacing him would be very hard - decent strikers are usually the most expensive. Plus the fact if they are a decent striker, there will be another 6 Prem league clubs after them. Continuity and stability are important as well if we are to progress.

Because his body will be used to it after playing his second full-season in the Premiership. He has been working a hell of a lot of other aspects of his game (in the gym) throughout the season and this has also taken its toll. Additionally, this was an Under 21 tournament, so I am sure if it was the full England squad, Bentley would have sacrficed his summer and the start of our pre-season. It is clearly obvious Bentley needs a good rest in order to come back in good shape next season - afterall he did discuss this with full England squad members (and you can presume they told him to take the summer off unless he wants to "hit a brick wall around October time"). He may be 23 but Bentley is still early on in his development - he has just had his first FULL season in the Premiership.