"" Daily Mail - Mark Hughes Column We have signed a few players. It might look like a scattergun approach but itâs not. We start every summer with a wishlist, but donât usually get everyone! Weâve done our homework, we are not just collecting players. Weâve signed some very good ones from big clubs like Real Madrid and Inter Milan. The one player we didnât expect was Julio Cesar. Heâs a fantastic signing for this club. It has been called a statement signing, but I donât like that. Itâs a football signing. He wants to be part of the story of where this club is heading. We have not spent a fortune, we have built up good contacts in the game. We have negotiated some good deals that will not damage the club. I also have an ambitious chairman, Tony Fernandes, who is the best I have worked for. Julio Cesar sat in Tonyâs house and liked what we had to say. He showed a desire to play in the Premier League and to listen to what we are trying to achieve. He is some goalkeeper. I played with some good keepers, including Peter Schmeichel. I worked with some good ones too, such as Brad Friedel, Shay Given and Joe Hart. Julio is a fantastic shot-stopper who has a control of his area. Heâs won 64 caps for Brazil. That tells you it all. And heâs only 32. Brad is still playing in the Premier League at 41. It was always my plan to sign two goalkeepers. I just didnât expect one of them to be a Champions League winner from Inter Milan. Weâve had different keepers in all summer, taking a look at them. Rob Green now has to rise to the challenge. Competition for places is what I wanted. The squad required major surgery, that has now happened and I expect us to have a good season. I back my record in the transfer market. Vincent Kompany is the captain of the English champions, Mousa Dembele I signed for Fulham for £4million and they sold him this week to Tottenham for £15m. Chris Samba cost Blackburn £450,000 and was sold for over £12m. They donât all work as well as those, mind, but theyâre not bad. Keeping the transfer window open after the start of the season is not helpful to managers. But it has been helpful to us this time. We have a lot of quality now. Iâm looking forward to watching training. I donât play any more. I would just get in the way and we want the training to have the required intensity. The new players will enjoy the sessions my staff and I put on. Losing 5-0 to Swansea was not in the plan. It took us by surprise, we didnât see it coming. We had a good pre-season; a lot of travelling, but a good pre-season and we were happy with preparation. Then along came Swansea. They scored a terrific second goal as we chased the game and then they picked us off. The result sounds awful. Actually, it was awful. But the signings this week are not a knee-jerk response to that defeat, even though it might look that way. These players were always on our wishlist and the chairman has been brilliant. Now we have to see where we can take this club. We wonât go through this process again. It wonât be spend, spend, spend all the time. But I canât say we are finished yet. There is still until 11pm today. I said in an earlier column for Sportsmail that I wanted to improve on the squad and bring in quality. We have done that. Iâm looking forward to seeing this team settle down and play. We have some interesting games coming up...Manchester City, Chelsea, Spurs. Top players thrive on big challenges. Letâs see what we can do. I congratulate City on winning the title last season. They beat us on the final day â you may remember. It was crazy when they won right at the death. It would be good to think we owe them one. They have an outstanding team, but letâs have a go. Attacking football has been rewarded already this season, although we canât be gung-ho. I signed a little fella called Carlos Tevez for City, but I wonât be asking him to go easy on us. He looks a threat again and has a sparkle in his eye. He looks settled, but we have goalscorers too. There are similarities between what we found at QPR and when I took over at City. Things just werenât in place. There wasnât the infrastructure to fulfil the demands of the owner. And that takes time. The owner understands what we want to build and what it will take to get there. I want QPR to be in a different place â so whatâs my target for the team? We were almost relegated last season. It may take two, three, four years but we want to build something here. The ground can be a hostile fortress for us and we have a good record at Loftus Road, where the supporters create a terrific atmosphere that helped us to some big wins last season. Swansea was a blip. Since then we got a point on the road at Norwich and we have beaten Walsall at home in the Capital One Cup. Itâs a start. One of the players who has left the club is Paddy Kenny. You would have read in these pages about his texts and voicemails. It was an unfortunate episode between professional people. It shouldnât have happened, but he has apologised and itâs over now. We move on. We needed different personnel and we now have Robert Green and Julio Cesar. I wish Paddy all the best at Leeds. Another who is close to leaving is Joey Barton. A number of options have been presented to him and I hope this latest one works out for him at Marseille. Itâs better for him to move on and get on with his football career. I donât really have anything more to say on the matter. Iâm not on Twitter. And I wonât be. I just donât get it. But then I guess not everyone has a newspaper column. I will report back in a few weeks. Hopefully I will have some Premier League wins to include. This column should have appeared after the Swansea game, but I thought it was going to be an interesting final week of the transfer window. And thatâs how itâs turned out. Itâs good to have exciting signings to write about. Esteban Granero is another terrific capture, which takes it to 10. Park Ji-sung, Jose Bosingwa, Junior Hoilett, Samba Diakite, Fabio, Ryan Nelsen, Andy Johnson, Rob Green and Julio Cesar. That looks like good business to me. Mail "" Great stuff, and good Paddy apologised and all over.
Very interesting read; anyone else get the impression that he'd really love to come back with more than one point from ManC? He seems to be a very measured man; about 6 feet at the last check. Taxi!!
This is the most important quote in the piece to me. I'd be worried about the current transfer policy if it wasn't clear that things behind the scenes are becoming more organised and professional.
happy with that if he means it...gets my total backing despite some questionable former signings and performances.... In MH we trust !
Thanks for posting Oslo I've only just got back from holiday, and personally I couldn't be happier to see all the goings on at Loftus Road. Good times! In MH we trust!
happy to read that and it should lift a lot of worries from some of our supporters, including me. now lets get down to playing to our full potential. Onwards and upwards. BTW Rob Green aint the only keeper to make howlers!!
"One of the players who has left the club is Paddy Kenny. You would have read in these pages about his texts and voicemails. It was an unfortunate episode between professional people. It shouldnât have happened, but he has apologised and itâs over now. We move on. We needed different personnel and we now have Robert Green and Julio Cesar. I wish Paddy all the best at Leeds." Made me LOL literally. A very cultured and polite put down!!
Never in doubt in my mind and would be nice to see a few humble comments on here would it not? TF chose MH and people forget that!!!. The board has a plan and of course NW had to go ... any doubters here now? ... Could you see NW making any of these transfers working. Calling for MH's head was allow point on this otherwise great little forum. There is no guarantee that any of the signings will work or the team plays well but you have to get behind the your team as a fan IMO. There will be dark days ahead I am sure but if there is anyone who can't see what direction we are heading please have a word with yourselves.
No you right there's no need to call for MH's head just yet, but if we don't get out of the bottom 3 by around mid-October with this investment, then a few of us will rightly wanna a new Manager that delivers points, and not just names! As for Colin that's a boring old arguement, and he don't have anything to do with us now. But we could have been 2nd in the PL today if he were still here.
I, for one will not be calling for his head mid-october with the run of fixtures we have coming up. If anyone thinks MH is going to be sacked in the near future after the investment we are currently making then thay must be in cuckooland.
I love where we are going now, no mistake. But it is the TF and Mittal making this investment, not MH! They have already been ruthless once, and MH can't expect them to less so if we are still bottom 3 and losing matches, when he will have been in the job nearly a year, and had fantastic support from the Board.
You're right, people should always own up and eat some humble pie when they get something wrong - after all, it is the grown up thing to do. It never seems to happen on this blog though. Well, very rarely anyway. For my part I was a little concerned with the nature of the signings....... and still am! One appeasing article from the Manager is not going to change that. That said, it could well work out fantastically also so I'm very excited at the same time. Now that you mention it Oddball, it would be nice to see some of those who thought Joey Barton was a great signing come out now and hold their hands up. I recall Roller getting bashed from pillar to post for saying that it was a bad move. I shan't hold me breath however........
