Ah Capitan let me stop you there. Hodgson was indeed well known in Scandanavia (where most of his success came from) and would have been a well known figure say 10 years ago, but the point is that at the time of his appointment, he was not a well known face. He does have a trophy cabinet a lot of managers would envy, but as you mentioned, they have been won in unfashionable leagues. When was the last time a Swedish side made a name for themselves in the Champions League? I don't agree that Hughes had a lot on his CV. He did very well with both Blackburn and Wales, but the Man City job derailed him big time. He wasn't even our first choice as manager! Do you think he would have been first choice had the Man City debacle not happened? He has also won a total amount of 0 trophies. I see Hughes as an average manager to be honest with you.
Bandy. Agreed that if you just count trophies Hughes is average. If you measure ability as a manager by their ability to improve a team, his record is excellent. He left Wales in a much better state than he inherited, and at a level that nobody since has maintained. He steadily improved Blackburn over 5 years or so, taking them from relegation dogfight regulars to regular contenders for the UEFA cup (as it was then) places and evolving from a nasty, physical battling side to a much more attractive style of play than he was given credit for. At Man City we'll never know how things would have gone if he'd been given a fair chance. It is fair to say that he achieved all the targets he was set by the board, only to get the sack after having the goalposts moved by new owners. If you look at how he did at Fulham once injured players started coming back, there's an argument to say that he improved our side as well. Our best ever finish is 7th, and he managed 8th in a season where we were in the relegation zone at Christmas. Again, we'll never know what more he would have done with us (and he's in no position to complain about that), but we're certainly not worse than what he inherited and arguably better. Hughes has a better record than most Premier League managers. As for Hodgson, the decline in his trophy count is probably more to do with spending most of the last ten years or more managing unglamorous national sides such as Finland. I doubt that any manager would expect to win a lot of trophies in the jobs he chose to take on. I read a quote from him when he was still with us where he said that he hadn't bothered with looking for career progression, choosing instead to take whatever job came along that seemed interesting, even if it was a step down from his previous job. He seemed to wonder where he might have ended up if he had been a bit more careerist, which may help to explain why he took the Liverpool job. Either way, both managers were well established before they came to us.
