Another view of MH... http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/jan/14/mark-hughes-qpr-premier-league-football
Mark Hughes is back on track after big-desk hubris at Craven Cottage The former Fulham manager adjusts his ambitions as he takes charge of Premier League strugglers Queens Park Rangers Daniel Taylor The Observer, Sunday 15 January 2012 The first thing Mark Hughes did when he became manager of Fulham was to ask for a bigger desk. Hughes wasn't happy with his new surroundings. The office, he said, was too small. A new computer was ordered and a big leather chair. Then builders were brought in to knock down the adjoining wall and extend an office that had done just fine for Roy Hodgson, Lawrie Sanchez, Chris Coleman and everyone before. This is what can happen when a man spends time among the conifers and greenery of Manchester City's training ground then downgrades to a club where the paint might be peeling in a few corners and they drink their tea from a flask rather than fine china. Hughes never really felt Fulham were distinguished enough for him and it always seemed a temporary measure given that he has an adviser, Kia Joorabchian, with an A to Z of chief executives on speed-dial. Except they stopped returning his calls. Joorabchian said his client wanted to manage a club more in keeping with his playing career at Manchester United, Bayern Munich and Chelsea. "He really wants to be right up there, competing for titles and the Champions League positions." Instead, Hughes has spent six months out of the game before rolling up at Queens Park Rangers, third from bottom of the Premier League, with a stadium that holds fewer than Notts County's, Port Vale's or Bradford City's. QPR matter these days. This is an ambitious time at Loftus Road and they deserve better than to be patronised, but there are still 49 larger club grounds in England and, however much it is dressed up, it is going to be difficult to see Hughes on the touchline for his first match and not believe this is a man whose ambitions have been undermined by his own mistakes. Hughes was talked about as a credible successor to Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United at one stage, but his name has been rubbed off the betting-shop chalkboards now, probably for good. This is not to denigrate a man who took Fulham to eighth place in the Premier League, brought calm and pride where there is now fear and loathing at Blackburn Rovers and was doing a steady job at Manchester City before his very public sacking. Garry Cook, the former Nike man and now deposed City chief executive, had described Hughes as football's equivalent of Michael Jordan, but had been making clandestine approaches to other managers for six months. So Hughes is probably entitled to his grievance. Yet what has happened since then would make it difficult for anybody to argue the decision-makers in Abu Dhabi got it wrong, even if there were better ways of going about it. At Fulham, Hughes was so obsessed with presentation and order that the kit men had to line up the ice buckets with perfect symmetry and make sure all of the drinks bottles had their labels showing at the correct angle. At City, he made the security guy take down the Ricky Hatton posters in his cabin because he thought it gave the wrong impression. Yet this level of detail has not always been so apparent. Hughes turned a blind eye when Robinho turned up for trips abroad in jeans and trainers when he should have been wearing a club suit. Not the most important thing, perhaps, but sometimes it is the little details that demonstrate the differences between a manager who is good, and sometimes very good, but still a notch or two below what is needed for the highest level. Over lunch a few weeks back, Roberto Mancini, Hughes's replacement, smiled knowingly as he recalled the day he brought on Robinho as a substitute, then substituted him. The Italian never indulged Robinho in the way Hughes did, and was better for it. The alliance with Joorabchian is another puzzling factor given that you would not automatically put the two men together. Hughes clearly believes the good outweighs the bad, but, put bluntly, Aston Villa did not want to do business with them when everyone assumed that was the next logical move last summer – and, in terms of perception and image, Joorabchian has become so synonymous with Carlos Tevez and controversy it does affect the Hughes brand. Joorabchian is clearly a man with connections, but Tevez is now into his third month of striking at City, where they make no secret of the fact they think the player's adviser is partly to blame. Mancini's opinion of the Tevez-Joorabchian double act is not so much low as subterranean and recalls that episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm when Richard, stricken in hospital, discovers Larry and Jeff have been flipping a coin and playing eenie-meenie-miney-mo to try to get out of being his kidney donor. The difference, of course, is that Larry admitted it was wrong. Tevez has never said sorry for anything and, so far, the only person in football who has been willing to defend him is the man, funnily enough, who shares Joorabchian as their go-to guy. Which is a shame because, when you get past all the fluff and politics, Hughes has earned the right to another go.
I think this is **** journalism. Hughes has clearly bought into the Board's vision for the future, including a new academy, training ground and 30k capacity ground!
Hughes is a man on a mission, he feels he has something to prove. Tony Fernandes the same. Whatever happens over the next 18 games, there'll be no stone left unturned to make club and team a success. As for today, we have nothing to lose. No one expects Toon to lose. I just want to see our team go for it...
Article has Hughes down as a methodical suit with a bit of OCD thrown in. Then it suggests this doesn't go all the way and cites his failure to bring a Brazilian first team international (signed by him) into line... OTT? Well is he or ain't he?
