I personally would be more than happy if Mark did stay and manage next season regardless of whether we are relegated as he seems to have connected with the club and I like the fact that he wont let lazy players play for Saints and the club and manager could be good for one another I suspect But do others agree?
Mark Hughes in the Championship?, yes for certain, Mark Hughes in the PL?, maybe for a year or two for stability, but long term I would hope that we would have someone a bit more progressive in mind. Mind you, that depends on how it goes with Hughes I suppose. In answer to your original question, I would say yes.
I think our Leicester moment has been delayed for a while, so given the choice between Hughes and Mourinho I'd pick Hughes. (unless Ranieri fancies a shot!)
If SFC are relegated, perhaps Allardyce is the man to recruit for an immediate return. Personally, I favour a longer term strategy.
Pardew? Redknapp? Pulis? Hughes? Allardyce? Oh no, hang on, I think we have Hughes currently, don't we? Vin
Everything rests with the intentions of our esteemed owner, Jisheng Gao. If he wants to asset strip the club, as I have always suspected, then we may as well retain Sparky’s services to preside over our plummet towards the Wessex League Premier Division. If, however, he turns out to be the next Sheikh Mansour, and has just been waiting for an excuse to clear the dead wood out of the club, then we might be looking for a more ambitious appointment.
Ideas of grandeur. Hughes is a perfectly acceptable manager for a club our size. Just get shot of Reed and Krueger and it won’t matter what league you are in.
I don't think Hughes really belongs alongside the other names you've listed. I wouldn't rule him out at this point but I wouldn't be offering him a contract just yet either.
I have not endorsed any one of the guys you have put up, sarcastically. If a club wants an instant return to the PL, all I said was that Big Sam might be the man, not the man!! I would prefer long term thinking and I think someone on here referred to Graham Potter.
Yes, we need stability, not another gamble. Keep on gambling on managers and we will continue our plummet into obscurity and embarrassment. Hughes offers stability. He has bags of experience in English football. He will stop the rot and turn us around. Then we can think about the next move. All those saying "no", please offer suggestions as to who you think is a better option. Please leave the obscure foreign managers at the door.
What happens if we are playing full football next season, either between 14th-20th in the PL, or mid-table in the Championship? Will stability still be the buzz word? Today I can’t make that call. I will say Highies was not a manager I had ever wanted Sains to employ, but he is here and will give him a chance. To decide now is nuts, even if for stability. He has managed us over three games, one game where for the first half we were totally outplayed by a league one team, however he got the team to improve and win he second half. The other game we looked quite comfortable in places (where have I seen that before) but it was against a very poor Arsenal side who played very poorly. For all the “we looked good/showed more fight” we lost the game gifting the other team three goals again. We won’t mention the third. No way can I make a call after three games to keep the coach for stability purposes. If stability was so important to us, we should have kept one of the last two managers. I don’t want stability, I want a manager who will have us winning games and being as high up the league as possible, with hopefully a good cup run. Anyone deciding now is proving to be a typically fickle fan.
Indeed. He’s not the name I’d have picked in an ideal world but given where we were/are he’s an understandable appointment and, for me at least, not as bad as Pulis, Allardyce or Redknapp. There have been some promising signs - he’s prepared to change formations and tactics to try and find something that works - but results are what count. We’ll have to see what happens for the rest of the season and then the powers that be need to speak to him about longer term plans - whether that’s how to get promoted back to the Premier League or how to climb the table - and make a decision. Mind you, if we do go down then Hughes may turn out to be the best option available - if Les really has a list of possible managers in his desk drawer then I imagine some (most?) wouldn’t be too interested in coming to a Championship club.
