Yeah, I mean, I'm as much of a mercenary as anyone when it comes to these things. But for the moment, at least, Hughes seems to command the respect of the dressing room, and the two previous managers did not. You sack him and the next guy doesn't get off on the right foot? It would be absolutely toxic.
You know what football fans are like Helen; we all think we'd get Ancelotti. Then we end up with someone no one's heard of, and turn against him as soon as we draw at home to Cardiff. Hughes looks a perfect fit for us at the moment. He obviously has a heart as big as a whale, & I don't know if he's a tactical genius or not, but he always has a plan. He'll do.
Mark Hughes is Stoke city loss and Southampton gain.Watching the game last night was like total Eclipse of the Moon.
The Gabbiadini substitution was forced, but so easy to do a defender for a defender. MP2 would have swapped Bednarek for McQueen, then probably taken off Austin for Forster. MH makes decisions based on what is happening on the pitch, and not his way of playing. As the commentator said last night, fortune favours the brave. He has earned a season at least. And I for one would be quite excited about it.
My thoughts on this are that Hughes is a safe pair of hands. He was the obvious choice when we sacked Pellegrino as we did it so late that we had to go for a proven PL type manager and Hughes was the only one available. He has done a very good job in lifting the players, but I still believe we have one of the better squads outside the top 6 so I don't think it was really THAT hard to do it if we just played a different style of football, which Hughes has certainly done. But we were a sinking ship and he stopped that, next season however is a completely different journey and I would rather we went with someone else. Give Hughes the bonus he very much earnt and let him go. After Pellegrino and to an extent Puel it is refreshing to have a manager come in and play with a bit of attacking emphasis and PASSION (for want of a better phrase). But history says that what most likely will happen if we gave Hughes a long term contract is we would be mid table obscurity for a couple of years and then it would go wrong and we would be looking to replace him. Some people may say they are happy with this or the classic "we need some solidity in the club" but that just simply doesn't exist in football. Just because you have a settled team and manager that could finish 8th one season (or for a couple of seasons) doesn't mean **** in PL football as it changes so quickly. Would anyone really be surprised if Burnley were in a relegation fight next year despite having a settled team and manager and doing so well this year? For me we are in that group of 13 clubs that will eventually go down, might not be this season might not be next but unless something massive changes in either our boardroom or the way the PL operates it will happen eventually and that is just the way it is. So I would always choose to roll the dice when it comes to appointing a "safe" manager like Hughes or going for someone unknown from abroad or the lower leagues. We might hit the next Poch or we might get Pellegrino, but I can really think of nothing worse as a football fan than just being mid table every year so either of those options are preferable to me than a Hughes.
I think Southampton should have enough money to buy quality players in the summer without selling. Good luck Southampton
Amen to that. This could - in fact should - be the first summer since we arrived in the PL, where we are looking to buy before we sell. If only because no one will be trying that hard to buy our players.
and by spending the absolute minimum to survive we have a lot of money to do that. Genius by the board.
Only player who I think would go is Bertrand, purely because of the interest in him and being one of the best LB in the league.
Southampton boss Mark Hughes says 'dark arts' motivated side at Swansea https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44046850
Hughes came in with only a few games left and the players responded to him. He picked the team for results and got them...despite a lot of the usual Saints stuff...like not being able to finish and having rotten luck. It will be interesting to see who is brought in and who he plays from the present squad when we are not completely under the cosh to get results. Leaders in war are not necessarily the best leaders in peace. I have no opinion...apart from doubting that we are going to turn into the Red Arrows again any time soon...but I hope we have a lucky manager.
Some managers fit situations, others don`t. Strachan was great at Saints, good at Celtic, OK with Scotland, mediocre at Coventry, dreadful at Boro. Give him the job, he`s earned it. He`ll have learned a lot from Stoke`s transfers (were they his anyway ?).
They were a bit of everyone's at Stoke I think, but either way they won't be here, he'll be reading transfer rumours like the rest of us this summer. Actually I have an even less popular opinion: minor tweaks, not major surgery, is what we need to get us back on the right track. Sacking the board and starting again isn't going to do us any good.
As I said above, I feel Hughes deserves another season, which I think he will get, by the same logic as the board sacked Puel last season. The majority of the fans will be ecstatic if we stay up, and there will be a triumphant pitch invasion on Sunday if we finish 16th or 17th, in stark contrast to the reaction to last season’s paltry 8th place. The only way Sparky won’t stay is if he doesn’t want to, or if Mr Gao sacks the board, brings back Cortese as CEO and appoints Thomas Tuchel as manager. (Neither of these things will happen).
They do different jobs so hard to compare. Managers have less input than they used to. Thing to remember is that when Hughes arrived he said he looked round the training ground and saw at least 5 players that he tried to sign at Stoke, so I'm guessing their ideas are similar. Hard to know what will happen in the closed season....our needs are about the same as the beginning of this season. It depends on Hughes (if he gets/wants the job)...some players that have underperformed may suit his style of play more than his 2 predecessors and others (let's call him Boufal for the sake of argument) don't suit him at all. On top of that we have the unknown factor that is Gao...want his money, but not sure I want his footballing input. Let's hope he isn't a meddler.
Can someone please remind me what MH did to take Stoke down? Wernt they around 13th place when he was sacked?
