They are right to be wary of Hughes, but not for the reasons that they (and the QPR fans) might think. Hughes is damaged goods as a manager right now. He's not going to get a large amount to spend after his QPR disaster; if he wants another chance in the Premier League he is going to have to accept tight bonds from a board. For Stoke to have gone so quickly for Hughes and ignored other options like di Matteo & Poyet implies that the board wants exactly that: a manager in no position to make demands. Pulis had a very good record at Stoke to fall back on, whereas Hughes does not. To me that all adds up to one thing: cost cutting and the proverbial yes-man. Hughes may do well at Stoke, he did well enough here once he stopped playing with our defensive line. But he will need to do it on a budget and I worry that Stoke do not have the quality in their squad to thrive under that approach. A good manager can only paper over the cracks to a certain point, as we well know.
Well, if I was a Stoke fan I'd be shaken and certainly not stirred by the news. PS Great picture and story GeraS.
Wouldn't say I'd be overwhelmed if I was a Stoke fan, considering some of the other managers they could have got. At Christmas time under Hughes we were 3rd from bottom, by April we were 16th and still in trouble, it was only when senior players started coming back into the side that Hughes put a few wins together, and other teams started to crumble that we got to 8th place, it was only our games in April against teams around us that shot us up from 15th to 8th and out of relegation trouble, in fact I think we jumped 2 places when we drew the last game with Arsenal. Another thing Stoke have to watch and worry about Hughes is that he has an adviser called Kia Joorabchian who basically is not allowed by the FA to be a players agent but gets involved in a lot of Hughes transfer business, (if you remember the Tevez, Mascherano dealings and problems at West Ham, he was involved as being part owner of them) and had a lot to do with signings at QPR.
And of course Old Sparky will take along his bundle of retainers. I can still remember with amazement, just after he came to the Cottage, our pre-match warm ups when there were more 'coaches' on the pitch than there were players. The Stoke chairman will need loads of dosh to pay for that lot alone.
As you say, hope they have plenty of cash to afford all coaches let alone players. Stoke have been relatively successful with a certain style of football and I think if he tries changing this too quickly then Stoke are in for a rocky ride. If they start off badly then it could be very interesting. Never really took to Stoke as a team but I like their fans and I do feel a bit sorry for them.
I suspect this will be the first of many protests over Hughes by Stoke fans. I can't believe they gave this man the job. His work at QPR was diabolical.
Well, I'd be delighted to be proved wrong, but I think he'll do all right at Stoke. At Blackburn he slowly but steadily transformed a hard, direct, unattractive team and made them progressively more entertaining and progressively higher placed in the league, working on what will probably be a similar level of budget to what he'll have at Stoke. The problem for Hughes will be that Stoke won't offer him the level of budget to satisfy his 'ambition' (mind you, I'm not sure that Auric Goldfinger would have enough budget to satisfy Hughes' ambition). I think he did better with us than he's given credit for. Our early performances were better than the results they earned, not least due to Bobby Zamora getting a long-term injury, and before he chose to leave us for better things - whatever happened there, Mark? - we were all quite happy to have him for another season. Most of our ill-will towards him now is based on his leaving rather than his performance here. He did stink Loftus Road out, though, which is why he should never be trusted with another blank chequebook.
I've a sneaky suspicion you're correct with the Blacbkurn comparison Captain. But one can only hope and gloat. He may have to raise some money. What are the odds that his first move is to sell Peter Crouch to 'Arry ?
Yeah, you'd think he'd learnt from his mistakes so he'll probably reign himself in. And I would think Stoke have him and his posse on carefully-written contracts too.
Oh dear, I just heard the Stoke chairman say that Hughes time at QPR was a blip in his career. Sounds like their chairman has had his trousers pulled down by Hughes. I'd have to disagree with them if they've taken his time at Fulham as being a positive. May be it will work out for him at Stoke, or it could be a very expensive mistake.
