If you look at the Man City side who won the Prem last year, it was still comprised of a lot of players that Hughes and his team had brought to the club. The Likes of Hart, Kompany, De Jong, Johnson and a few more were all Hughes signings and they weren't really big money buys. He did buy some big names that didn't really make an impression and I guess that is why they got rid of Hughes, but he had done most of the ground work. Some of the signings that Hughes is making now will undoubtedly fail, you just can't account for how a player will adapt to a new team (Mike Sheron ring any bells?), but if we stick with him, unlike city, he will create a team that will eventually challenge for the Euro spots. When we look at other clubs sacking managers after 10 games, it's easy to look at from the outside and say that the board of that club are showing no loyalty and are panicking, but when your own club is trying to step up it's easy to start to worry that it might not work out, but history shows that you have to hold your nerve and let things play out. But the most important thing is to stick by the team and enjoy the ride. Fernandes is no mug, and as we saw in the 4 year plan, it is Amit who is firmly in control of finances and he strikes me as having too much guile to let us get ahead of ourselves. If they are comfortable with the money being spent, we shouldn't give it another thought. We know they aren't rich Arabs throwing money around till it runs out like at Portsmouth. So let's enjoy the good times and worry about bad things if and when they happen.
Hughes was doing exactly the same thing at Citeh when Sinawatra was the owner and he only left Foolham because the gun-runner was more interested in Michael Jackson statues than investing in top players. Sparky wants a big squad full of quality players that can drop in to the team as and when required even if "big" names have to be left on the bench every now and then. If Cesar, Granero and M'Bia all sign and we also bring in another 1st class striker it has the makings of a very decent squad but Hughes needs to make sure he can get them all to focus on the task at hand and not just live off the promise of things that may happen off into the future. We may have what looks like a top 6 team on paper after this transfer window closes but we will still struggle to stay up unless egos can be checked in at the door and everyone plays for the team and us fans. Citeh at the weekend might be too soon to blood the new boys but I hope we can do a job against the Scum and Spuds.
I don't know, the jury is out. But he should be given a few weeks, and more if we are out of the bottom 3 by mid October. Whatever, we got every reason to enjoy at the moment.
