I can't claim this to be my work - but IOM spot on! Mark Hughes and his ambitions Since Kenny was sacked, there’s been a lot of speculation in my head as to whether or not I’d be prepared to manage Liverpool. If they’re looking for an ambitious manager who bleeds ambition and knows what it takes to have ambition, to hold it, to embrace it and talk about it during press conferences, then of course I'd be interested. If the guys in charge are as ambitious as I think they are - and £35m for Andy Carroll and £16m for Jordan Henderson suggests they are - they’ll be looking to get someone in with a proven track record of unfettered ambition. I’m a man who’s not afraid to reach for the stars and go for gold. You give me a pound, I want two; that’s just the kind of guy I am. I've always been ambitious. I was doing an incredible job for Wales, but when the FAW refused to back me in the transfer market, it was obvious that I'd have to go elsewhere to fulfill my ambition. Standing still is for statues - it was time to move on. At Blackburn, I was the most successful manager in the club's history, but when my Special adviser, Kia Joorabchian, told me that Man City were interested and willing to pay £90,000 a week to Wayne Bridge, it looked like I'd finally found a club where I could realise my ambition of fulfilling my ambition. I took Man City to sixth – they said it couldn’t be done – but I knew better than anyone just what I was capable of, and whilst there, I put together what many consider to be the most exciting and successful side that they’ve ever had at City. Unfortunately, the owners took a different view and the rest is history. We move on. It wasn't long before I was approached by Fulham. Kia explained that Fulham were the first club to pay a player £100 a week and that they’d once spent £13m on Steve Marlet, so they weren't totally without ambition. Daytime telly’s a load of rubbish, so I took the job. But you wouldn’t believe the mess I inherited at Fulham. Hodgson, had struggled to keep Fulham out of the bottom thirteen in his first full season and had then walked out after a disastrous campaign in Europe, leaving behind a fractured squad bereft or talent, hope or organisation. People told me to walk away, that no-one could keep that side up – nobody thought we had a hope in Hell, but the players listened to what I had to say and I turned the club around. Eighth place was a magnificent achievement, but if a shark stops swimming it drowns. At the back of my head was a nagging feeling that I should be managing one of the elite clubs - one of the European giants - and every day I spent at Motspur Park offended my sense of ambition. Mourinho at The Bernabeu whilst I was at The Cottage - it didn't make sense. I can take a hint, so when Chelsea sacked Ancelotti, I activated the walk-away-in-the-name-of-ambition clause that I’d insisted on, and waited for the call to Cobham. Clearly intimidated by my ambition and the demands I'd be placing upon his finances, Abramovich went for AVB instead. Villa were now on the look-out for a new manager. They’re not what you’d call a ‘massive’ club, but they won the European cup once, spunked £24m on Darren Bent and their wage bill was out of control; it was a job I could take without debasing myself. The way I saw it, I'd go in, do my thing and twelve months later I'd be working my magic at Camp Nou. The fact that they didn’t interview me tells you everything you need to know about their ambition. Kia then asked me if I’d be interested in the Sunderland job. I wasn’t. But Kia pointed out that they'd once been called the 'Bank of England club' and had broken the transfer record to sign Len Shackleton. It sounded promising, but Ellis Short bottled it and appointed Yes-man, MON instead. I was beginning to think that football in this country had become small, that people had stopped dreaming, but then I got a call from QPR. When I interviewed Tony Fernandes, I immediately warmed to the guy; no experience in the game, bags of ambition, childlike naivety and a willingness to operate a recklessly unsustainable wage bill. He reminded me of Al Fayed in his early days at Fulham. I gave him five minutes to pitch the club to me and he impressed me with his ambition, "Mark, what we have here is the potential to do something extraordinary. I'm not going to lie to you, Loftus Road, the training ground, the tiny crowds, players like Paddy Kenny...it's like the rest of the game moved on, but we're somehow stuck in 1987. But Mark, I have a vision for this club. When I started Air Asia, I re-mortgaged my house and bought a wing - - one wing - no fuselage, no seats - nothing – but it was a start. We had a vision, worked hard and now I'm one of the world's biggest self-publicists. I'm everywhere you look. We have a strategy Mark, we're putting together an elite team of superstars – we're paying SWP sixty thousand a week and Barton gets eighty. If you want the best, you have to pay for the best....and we'll give you three million a year to manage them". Sixty grand a week for SWP? This guy was certainly ambitious. I explained to Tony that everyone who’d played alongside me for Wales would be joining the payroll too, and after a quick check with Kia to see if anyone else had come in for me, I put pen to paper on a three year deal. My record at QPR speaks for itself - when I walked into the club, the team were seventeenth in the table and in serious trouble. I got the lads together, explained what it was that I wanted from them, added more than £10m to the annual wage bill, and by the time the season finished, I'd led the club to seventeenth place. The club's highest finish for sixteen years. Remarkable. Back in January, Tony Fernandes sold me a fantasy, but four months on, all I have is broken promises: there’s still no new stadium, we're still training on a park out by the airport and we haven't signed anyone since January. I feel let down. I’m still ambitious – I want to win the league without conceding a goal, I want a number one single and I want to be the first football manager in Space - but I'm beginning to wonder if I can realise those ambitions at QPR. So, if the Liverpool board can demonstrate a willingness to say yes to me at all times, then I think we can work something out.
If this is true, which frankly I find hard to believe, then I am reminded of what my Mum said on more than one occasion. Self praise is no recommendation.
I don't believe this is written by Mark Hughes. Glaring mistake in second paragraph "but when the FAW refused to back me in the transfer market,". Wales have a national team consisting of players qualifying by birth or naturalisation. They do not buy and sell players!
I think it is something a Liverpool fan would dream up to stop him going there. Plus I agree with what Ciderhead abroad says, I realised it was not him when I read that bit regarding transfer market funds from FAW
Sounds like a very good article but it would be a self distruct article as no club would touch him and other managers and players would feel let down hearing that. On the other hand i do think Mark Hughes is an under rated manager who did well keeping blackburn, fulham and QPR up when they were expected to go down and he did well at man city and i believe given time he would have eventually won things there. His problem was too many british players which liverpool have found this season doesnt work
Actually I think it was a Blackburn fan's work - I especially liked the bit about the money he spent at QPR - taking them from 17th to .... 17th!!
As a player Mark Hughes was an outstanding individual. He was brave, physical, focused, and was a prolific goal scorer at the highest level....in fact he was everything you could ever want in a striker. As a manager ofwhat already seems like a whole division of teams, he comes across as a dour, dis-satisfied, and quite an unpleasant person
got blackburn to the europa league, got fulham to their highest league position and was doing ok at city.. Imo it's not bad for small premiership clubs with small budgets and no expectations at all
