I'm not negative because of one match. You seem very aware of what I post so you will doubtless have noticed that I stated I was unhappy with this situation before the Wigan game. I'm negative because we've taken on a failed manager from a team currently below us in the league. I'm negative because instead of the careful planning we've been sold over the years, we get a knee-jerk reaction of "Sack current manager. Find a recently sacked manager to replace". And he's being hailed as the new messiah. Which is why the board did it. Because it gets the fans off their back. Here's a confident prediction. If MH keeps us up and we renew his contract, he'll be out of a job within 18 months after a run of bad results, because we've now stepped onto the merry-go-round of crap English management and the fans are showing they approve of it. I despair at people complaining that English managers aren't given a chance when I see Allardyce, Hughes, Pulis, Pardew, Hodgson and Moyes circulating round clubs, being sacked for being a problem then being rehired as a solution. Well, we're now firmly back on that list and I look forward to people welcoming Tony Pulis as our saviour when we're in trouble at the end of next season. Vin
Here is the bit we don't know about and I'm usually the ultra negative one round here. At the moment Hughes has a 3 month contract, get behind him hope he keeps us up and then hope the board bin him off in the summer as per his contract. The fact that they stuck with Pellegrino for so long indicates to me that they haven't moved away from their own philosophies. They REALLY wanted him to succeed and gave him far longer than probably any other team would give a manager, this I believe was because they did think he was the man long term but it got to the point where the short term was more important.
My thoughts precisely. Lose against West Ham and we are accellerating toward the championship. Win and we have every chance putting a run together. If I had more faith in the team mentality and on field leadership I would have far more belief. Don't believe for a moment that they dont care, in fact I think its the opposite and they are struggling with the weight of our performances this year and last. The Hughes effect will be the critical issue.
If he keeps us up, for me he has earned a longer stay. As a club, we have clearly binned off our ambitions of five years ago, so if this has just reverted back to a journey rather than a build, then I just want some excitement along the way. And, if Mark does bomb next season, after being rewarded with a new contract and massive war chest, that puts our nicely balanced books into the red, I just hope they pull the trigger quicker than what they did this season.
Failed? He finished 9th 3 times and 13th in 4 seasons with Stoke. OK, things went wrong this season but his general record is solid. The players definitely responded positively to Hughes yesterday. I can't remember the last time we played considerably better in the second half than we did in the first.
^^^^This I said before I feel the first half was a mixture of conditions and a hangover from MP tactics and once he had 45 mins of seeing them in a real situation he made the changes. We were very different second half and although far from the finished product a real improvement. If we attribute a bad first half to the manager, the second half can be attributed to him even more as he saw what was going wrong and changed it.
You make a few good points here but it's harsh to call him a failed manager imo. Also you can say they've done it to appease the fans but he's undoubtedly a better manager than MP, and the support are the ones who champion staying in the pl at all costs. I'd also suggest it's a little naive if people still think we're hugely different to any other lower end pl club.
This line from your post is key, for me. “What worries me, WHU during the 1st 45mins vs Burnley were pretty good.” At Newcastle and Wigan we were very slow out of the blocks, slow at moving the ball, mishitting passes and being closed down too easily, putting us on the back foot immediately. We have to start this, and other future games, at a higher tempo, or risk being swamped and forced into areas of the pitch we don’t want to play in. The defence also need to just put their collective foot through the ball, when under intense pressure. That moment in the first half, yesterday, when three of our players decided to play increasingly small triangles, whilst under extreme pressure, before someone did the right thing and launched the ball, could have gone so wrong, especially on that surface. Interesting to read, today, that we are now zonal marking for corners, with Hughes advising them to just head the ball clear, rather than concentrate on following their man. Seemed to work yesterday.
I certainly wouldn't call Hughes a failed manager. I wouldn't call Allardyce that either. Jury still out on Moyes. In any case, aren't managers allowed to fail, learn from their failures, and move on? That's what you do in life. Anyone who never made mistakes never made anything. Gordon Strachan went down with Coventry before coming to us btw.
I don’t really want to become “one of those clubs” either, but a change 100% had to be made if we had any hope of staying in this league, and I’d prefer to be ‘one of those’ for a brief time, at least, then one completely lacking in spirit and identity (in the playing sense). As has already been said, it doesn’t necessarily mean we’re becoming one either, particularly when you consider quite how long we kept our head in the sand supporting that hopeless guy we just moved on.
The problem the board could face, should we stay up but decide against keeping Hughes on (which, as I said all of last week, would quite possibly be the correct decision from the board, to stop us becoming the next Sunderland), is the negative reaction to such a decision from those outside of the club. Hardly a week goes by where you don't hear someone mention us sacking Puel after finishing 8th and getting to the LC final (they rarely go beyond that headline, and discuss the overall picture). It'll be ramped up even further if we then decide to let a manager a go who has successfully come in and kept us up, when that was indeed his job. Even though I could personally understand the board's reasons for both decisions, it could again be interpreted as a decision being made by a board who think we should be top four or something. Now OK, in an ideal world, the views of those outside of the club shouldn't have any bearing on the board's decision making. But you never know. (And to be honest, it's the board's own mess in the first place, for getting it all so very wrong with MP, so if they do have to grin and bear some media stick for a while, well tough luck.)
The complete fraud who took Sheff Weds fans to two consecutive play-offs in his first two seasons? Are you sure they’re not Saints fans?
If we win 6 of our last 8 games with 2-0 and 3-1 wins, or 1-0 wins against a Chelsea or a City, pushing us to clear safety, then I’ll be the first person demanding Hughes gets a 3 year deal. Yesterday he clearly changed our performance with whatever he said at half time. That is however one 45 minutes of football and it doesn’t make him the messiah (maybe just a little bit of a naughty boy). If he keeps us up by winning one game and scrapping 3 draws or whatever, I’ll be delighted, see him in a better light than I have before, but will be looking hard at the Board to see what they do next. Some happy bloke once said some nonsense about getting too high or too low when things are good or bad. He’s right. Feet firmly on the floor.
Yep, said with the amount of money spent they should've done better and he spunked it all on a lot of junk. Blame all their current problems on him and the way he built the squad leaving them in the ****. They also blame the board. Seems all football fans are the same
Not a problem for me Brendy. I really don’t give a **** what people outside the club say. The media just lap up the big boys and most other fans don’t pay close enough attention to clubs like us to have any decent knowledge,
**** that. Feet off the ground until 31st March. That's the rest of the month buzzing, thanks. I'll bear the inevitable lows, when they come, with fortitude, but until they do, Sparky is our saviour
