Completely disagree. If you're involved in football and supposedly know what you're doing - as Les Reed and others should do - you know that you don't appoint Mark Hughes on a three year contract. He didn't earn anything - except his bonus for us staying up. No one should begrudge him that. And then you look at your options over the close season, with a medium to long-term plan. He'll be gone in a month or so.
I don't think that he earned a chance. His audition was his season with Stoke. He's not an unknown quantity. He did a professional job across his fixtures last season, losing half of them and drawing two. I personally don't think that earns him a three year contract when we already know his managerial profile. This is a mercenary, remember, who walked out on Fulham after under a year, so he understands the job at hand. Fact is, a team who struggled as Saints did last season, should have a more forward-thinking approach, particularly when they had time on their hands. Great player, professional manager, but not what we need in our predicament, and that was a fact before we hired him. We're essentially losing two seasons here - Hughes was at best better than MP2, and at worst is going to oversee our second wasted season in a row.
As you may all know , I’m no expert when it comes to football , never even played the game apart from when I gad to at school . Seems to me though that we have scored r goals in 2 games , 2 against Manu . The problem lies in the defence , if the board won’t sanction new players , why get rid of MH ? What will a new manager bring ?
Perhaps better defensive organisation, different marking tactics at set pieces and maybe someone who would have dropped Hoedt sooner for his own sake. Hoedt could be a better player than he is, a better manager may bring that out of him.
In truth that is a good question.........Now for me I was a Sparky fan.......but he is not necessarily our long term saviour. When he came here he earned a shot at managing us in the short term by keeping us up. I could not think of any other manager available who would have done better. I was surprised he was given a three year contract I thought he would've got a year one. I guess though any manager won't sign for less than three? I have to say I'm not sure he is the best motivator although I could be doing him an injustice. I think part of his trouble is changing the team around too much. Injuries aside he seems very undecided which is his strongest 11. Which is a bit worrying given the time he has now had with the players.
I just don't think 'earnt' is the right word. He earnt a bonus for achieving that part. Winning two games of football against Bournemouth and Swansea (the only team worse than us at that point in the season) early should not earn anyone a three year contract. MP2 did that - infact his first eight games got almost identical results across a very similar profile of teams, including Swansea and West Ham. The point is, the club knows who Mark Hughes is, what kind of manager he is, what approach he might take, even what his results profile will probably look like over three years. He's not an organisational whizz, not a particularly astute tactician, but he will tread water hopefully at least four places from bottom up to about halfway. That is not hindsight for me - I've been banging that drum since he was hired - so I don't think the club should be let off the hook that easily. I agree at the point he was hired, there wasn't much choice, and the change itself was more important than who it was. But it's just naive and lazy to have awarded a contract and put us in this position. I guess it gave them an easy summer. None of this is said in an angry voice, btw. I just feel disappointed in the club - who used to do things so methodically, and now have slumped into the same track as countless other mediocre, unambitious clubs. We have been the Premier League's biggest landfill for coming up to two seasons now. Probably every neutral's soft spot to the most pointless, irrelevant team in the division.
Exactly right - detrimental to the players too. Which is where we should have thanked him and got someone else in on a three year contract imo.
Completely agree with you! Only issue is we have to start by getting the right manager first. Hughes is and never was it. He was clearly a stop-gap. I have no problem sitting in the relegation zone if I have confidence in the long-term vision of a manager. I'll admit he's working with a head case of a club at the moment who got drunk on a season or two of unprecedented (relative) success, but we need someone who can apply a winning mentality, for one. Even Neil Warnock is doing that with lesser players!
Quique Sanches Flores imminent? Resident SW ITKs tonight. please log in to view this image Originally Posted by Guan 2.0 please log in to view this image Does anyone have the number of a Southampton Taxi firm? There is an older gent soon to be in need of one back to Wales. Still, he'll have a generous payoff, so he can tip well. So long and er.. Thanks for keeping us up, I guess? please log in to view this image Originally Posted by K,Billy's supersound please log in to view this image Club can send him of with a nice bunch of Flores too. Maybe we can still come out this Season smelling of roses
Its happening. Seems odd that they waited for the united game and then sacked him after a decent point. Albeit we shouldve won. Wonder if Flores will be any better
