Since Kenny was sacked, there’s been a lot of speculation in my head as to whether or not I’d be prepared to manage Liverpool. If they’re looking for an ambitious manager who bleeds ambition and knows what it takes to have ambition, to hold it, to embrace it and talk about it during press conferences, then of course I'd be interested. If the guys in charge are as ambitious as I think they are - and £35m for Andy Carroll and £16m for Jordan Henderson suggests they are - they’ll be looking to get someone in with a proven track record of unfettered ambition. I’m a man who’s not afraid to reach for the stars and go for gold. You give me a pound, I want two; that’s just the kind of guy I am. I've always been ambitious. I was doing an incredible job for Wales, but when the FAW refused to back me in the transfer market, it was obvious that I'd have to go elsewhere to fulfill my ambition. Standing still is for statues - it was time to move on. At Blackburn, I was the most successful manager in the club's history, but when my Special adviser, Kia Joorabchian, told me that Man City were interested and willing to pay £90,000 a week to Wayne Bridge, it looked like I'd finally found a club where I could realise my ambition of fulfilling my ambition. I took Man City to sixth – they said it couldn’t be done – but I knew better than anyone just what I was capable of, and whilst there, I put together what many consider to be the most exciting and successful side that they’ve ever had at City. Unfortunately, the owners took a different view and the rest is history. We move on. It wasn't long before I was approached by Fulham. Kia explained that Fulham were the first club to pay a player £100 a week and that they’d once spent £13m on Steve Marlet, so they weren't totally without ambition. Daytime telly’s a load of rubbish, so I took the job. But you wouldn’t believe the mess I inherited at Fulham. Hodgson, had struggled to keep Fulham out of the bottom thirteen in his first full season and had then walked out after a disastrous campaign in Europe, leaving behind a fractured squad bereft or talent, hope or organisation. People told me to walk away, that no-one could keep that side up – nobody thought we had a hope in Hell, but the players listened to what I had to say and I turned the club around. Eighth place was a magnificent achievement, but if a shark stops swimming it drowns. At the back of my head was a nagging feeling that I should be managing one of the elite clubs - one of the European giants - and every day I spent at Motspur Park offended my sense of ambition. Mourinho at The Bernabeu whilst I was at The Cottage - it didn't make sense. I can take a hint, so when Chelsea sacked Ancelotti, I activated the walk-away-in-the-name-of-ambition clause that I’d insisted on, and waited for the call to Cobham. Clearly intimidated by my ambition and the demands I'd be placing upon his finances, Abramovich went for AVB instead. Villa were now on the look-out for a new manager. They’re not what you’d call a ‘massive’ club, but they won the European cup once, spunked £24m on Darren Bent and their wage bill was out of control; it was a job I could take without debasing myself. The way I saw it, I'd go in, do my thing and twelve months later I'd be working my magic at Camp Nou. The fact that they didn’t interview me tells you everything you need to know about their ambition. Kia then asked me if I’d be interested in the Sunderland job. I wasn’t. But Kia pointed out that they'd once been called the 'Bank of England club' and had broken the transfer record to sign Len Shackleton. It sounded promising, but Ellis Short bottled it and appointed Yes-man, MON instead. I was beginning to think that football in this country had become small, that people had stopped dreaming, but then I got a call from QPR. When I interviewed Tony Fernandes, I immediately warmed to the guy; no experience in the game, bags of ambition, childlike naivety and a willingness to operate a recklessly unsustainable wage bill. He reminded me of Al Fayed in his early days at Fulham. I gave him five minutes to pitch the club to me and he impressed me with his ambition, "Mark, what we have here is the potential to do something extraordinary. I'm not going to lie to you, Loftus Road, the training ground, the tiny crowds, players like Paddy Kenny...it's like the rest of the game moved on, but we're somehow stuck in 1987. But Mark, I have a vision for this club. When I started Air Asia, I re-mortgaged my house and bought a wing - - one wing - no fuselage, no seats - nothing – but it was a start. We had a vision, worked hard and now I'm one of the world's biggest self-publicists. I'm everywhere you look. We have a strategy Mark, we're putting together an elite team of superstars – we're paying SWP sixty thousand a week and Barton gets eighty. If you want the best, you have to pay for the best....and we'll give you three million a year to manage them". Sixty grand a week for SWP? This guy was certainly ambitious. I explained to Tony that everyone who’d played alongside me for Wales would be joining the payroll too, and after a quick check with Kia to see if anyone else had come in for me, I put pen to paper on a three year deal. My record at QPR speaks for itself - when I walked into the club, the team were seventeenth in the table and in serious trouble. I got the lads together, explained what it was that I wanted from them, added more than £10m to the annual wage bill, and by the time the season finished, I'd led the club to seventeenth place. The club's highest finish for sixteen years. Remarkable. Back in January, Tony Fernandes sold me a fantasy, but four months on, all I have is broken promises: there’s still no new stadium, we're still training on a park out by the airport and we haven't signed anyone since January. I feel let down. I’m still ambitious – I want to win the league without conceding a goal, I want a number one single and I want to be the first football manager in Space - but I'm beginning to wonder if I can realise those ambitions at QPR. So, if the Liverpool board can demonstrate a willingness to say yes to me at all times, then I think we can work something out.
It's from a Fulham forum. Yawn.............. http://www.friendsoffulham.com/forum/index.php?topic=22189.0
Very funny. Its a good take on Hughes who would have no hesitation in dropping us like a stone if summat seemingly better came up. But that's business.
There ain't many clubs who are going to pay him as much as we do, and more importantly give him the level of control he has. But if Utd come knocking, reckon you're right Swords.
TBF We've had one or two on here that weren't too bad, but this? It reeks of HammersmithBoohoo/LondonsBiggestJoke/Yappy or whatever he calls himself today. No posts on the Fulham board. Chelsea Village's Idiot's on the loose again.
Hilarious! I think Fulham fans would trade their premiership place to see Hughes do the dirty on us. Still - it must piss them off to beat us 6-0, take 6 points off us, finish miles above us in the table and still be the 3rd most talked about team in the borough
I love how worked up the Fulham fans get over it I think I remember when he said it and it all seemed pretty obvious he'd had a bust up with Al-Fayed and it was a bullshit media excuse, I had no idea the Tarquins took it so seriously until we played them this year O B S E S S I O N
No the idiot'll be haunting us forever. Just new user names for the same tedious old rubbish. Last I saw of him under his "real" name, LondonsBiggestJoke, he was getting his arse handed to him on the Chelsea board by Watford.
Truth is, we should be very careful of going down the wrong road of idolizing our Manager. It was done with COLIN and you dared not say a word against him or you were shot down. Now that hes gone, hes being slagged at every turn and everybody's calling him COLIN again! Facts are facts. Hughes has about as much loyalty as a cunning cat. I don't blame him though. Business is business. But the way he just walked out on Fulham when he heard the Villa job became vacant was ridiculous. I remember being very satisfied when I heard they'd given it to someone else and he was left out on his ear.
Football is full of badge-kissers who inevitably find another badge to kiss, and management is the 'upper' level of that...
I'm none of those people, but thought it was an interesting article, so wanted your take on it, hence the post. No jealousy of your manager, as I know what he is like, and am quie happy with what Jol is achieving.
The stuff about MH taking over when we were 17th and having spent £14 mill, and finishing, wow 17th is spot on! After saying all the stuff MH has said I'll be well p*ssed off if he walks out on us now, he'd probably be a good Manager for us one day. But I won't be at all surprised if he does.
But you really should post where it comes from, as it looks like plagiarism otherwise. Especially if you are going to post the same thing on our board, Liverpool's and who knows how many others, and make it look like your own work.
Yes you are. Same tedious MO. Same tedious agenda. Still no posts on the Fulham board? All your posts bar this article on our board.
Absolutely. I liked the article and thought it quite witty but not posting the Author's name and pretending you wrote it, Happy, comes across as just plain daft.
