I just don't think 'earnt' is the right word. He earnt a bonus for achieving that part. Winning two games of football against Bournemouth and Swansea (the only team worse than us at that point in the season) early should not earn anyone a three year contract. MP2 did that - infact his first eight games got almost identical results across a very similar profile of teams, including Swansea and West Ham.
The point is, the club knows who Mark Hughes is, what kind of manager he is, what approach he might take, even what his results profile will probably look like over three years. He's not an organisational whizz, not a particularly astute tactician, but he will tread water hopefully at least four places from bottom up to about halfway. That is not hindsight for me - I've been banging that drum since he was hired - so I don't think the club should be let off the hook that easily.
I agree at the point he was hired, there wasn't much choice, and the change itself was more important than who it was. But it's just naive and lazy to have awarded a contract and put us in this position. I guess it gave them an easy summer.
None of this is said in an angry voice, btw. I just feel disappointed in the club - who used to do things so methodically, and now have slumped into the same track as countless other mediocre, unambitious clubs. We have been the Premier League's biggest landfill for coming up to two seasons now. Probably every neutral's soft spot to the most pointless, irrelevant team in the division.