Today our chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak has said that Mark Hughes will still be in charge of the club next season.Khaldoon Al Mubarak said............
"I have been surprised at all the speculation because I have always been consistent with everyone on the subject of the manager," asserted Al Mubarak.''
"Every time I have spoken I have said that we have the highest confidence in Mark and I would like to re-iterate that now. Mark will be our manager next season; nothing has changed.''
"It has been a difficult season with all the rumours written about Mark's future and the number of players that we have been linked with. There has been incredible and unnecessary pressure put on Mark from outside the club - especially from the media but I recognise it comes with the game.''
"From my perspective, I think we have come a long way and I am very much looking to a big finish to the season next week against Bolton.''
"When you consider how things have gone since January I think we have accomplished things and now we can start focusing on next season.''
"For once this club can have a pre-season. This is a club that has had 10 managers in 15 years and changes of ownership it is hard to believe we have ever had a real pre-season.''
"So this time we will have that and we will do so with a year's experiences behind us and that will make us stronger. I think next year is going to be better than this one. The club has a lot more stability."
It is certain that there is going to be a lot of unhappy City fans once they hear what our chairman has had to say, I am not one of them.
In a lot of ways this season has been a total failure but I also think that there has been a lot of positives. The club as a whole is going through a huge transformation from the playing staff to the mentality of the club, a lot is changing and for it all to happen at once must be challenging.
Expectation has certainly taken over at our club and I think that some of us have been getting carried away. Sure it has been a frustrating season, we got knocked out of our domestic cups by lower league teams but then we got to the quarter final of a European competition, what can you say we are City!
So overall we have seen two very different sides from our managers team this season but I think that the good side slightly out weighs when we have been poor. To try and do what City have this season and build a club more or less from scratch must be hard on everyone.
I would like to see Hughes get another season because I believe we need the stability, I also think that he can be the man to take us forward, most of the players also seem to think so. Don't get me wrong though if we start off next season badly then I expect he will be sacked before Christmas.
What do you think?
Posts
Rome wasnt built in one day, Hughes in.
ReplyDeleteNo rome wasnt built in a day and i agree but hughes isnt the man to take us forward. This is the news i have been dreading cook has said this season has been a success it wont be till they kill city.2 away wins all season one reason to get rid of hughes.and one of the best chances of signing milito has now gone as he has agreed to join inter another target we should of got as who can we get in with a scoring record like his as villa and the likes wont want to join us weve been turned into a laughing stock
ReplyDeleteI think it is a good move to keep Hughes as manager, we need the stability to keep us going in the right direction. We dont need to be in a situation where we keep sacking our managers and then get relegated (Anybody remember Divison 2). Hopefully Mark will sign the correct players for the job, but must warn people that getting the 'big stars' might be a tough job since we didnt qualify for Europe.
ReplyDeleteIm looking forward to the next season already and cant wait for the next big signing (Robiniho esc) and hopefully a better away form.
I don't think we need world class players to reach the next level.
ReplyDeleteYou only have to look at Everton and Villa to see it doesn't take world beaters to build a good squad.
I am confident that we can attract players of higher quality than those two teams have, then it is up to Hughes to get the best out of them like O'Neill and Moyes have done.
I agree with the need for consistency but I am not convinced that this is a good enough reason to stick with Mark Hughes. With the exception of a few good displays from the team the overall performances, particularly since the turn of the year, when the manager stated that the team would get stronger, have been very poor. Too many holding midfielders - a move that has stifled the creativity and flair - and his stubborn selection of players such as Dunne, Richards and Caceido, who are chosen irrespective of how poorly they perform even though there are clearly better options available. His substitutions, with the exception of Daniel Sturridge at Blackburn, rarely seem to have a positive impact on a game and I don't agree with the common view that his signings have been good. His expressed disappointment that the job he has done at City has not been recognised as being equal to the job Harry Redknapp has performed at Tottenham is plain laughable. Anyway the owners have given him their support so I will also but I want to see a far more entertaining City next season with a return to attractive football and the ability to win away from home. You don't spend millions to become another Blackburn Rovers or Bolton Wanderers. I have seen no sign of progress this season, to be honest.
ReplyDeleteI do not think "big stars" care about the Europa League they want Champions League and will not sit out from that competition for more than one season.
ReplyDeleteCooke clearly intimated in the press today that not making europe means we can focus on 4th next season and the signings will reflect this. Hughes has been a disaster and keeping this fool only reinforces the perception that we are a laughing stock with mixed messages like this.
We will never attract the players we need to make the step change required with him in charge.
Forget about the list of 12 players I posted in an earlier blog he can't attract any of them. He is perceived as a joke in the world media as no top club would have kept him on after the season we have had with the money spent.
Very sad day for MCFC to stick with a man who is palpably out of his depth at City and the world knows it bar our wonderful rich absent owner and, those who are satisfied with mediocrity for the sake of stability.
Now if that is not a losing mentality I don't know what is.
A crap manager, a mediocre team, well if that´s what our ownwer want, well done, but don´t sell we will be the best team in the world.
ReplyDeleteFrom 7 to 10th place in Premier and nothing in Europe is our future, question is, why did they buy the team shouting we are very very rich and we´ll make a big team ? only specutation, wash money, I don´t believe in this arabs who have no football idea.
distinctly underwhelmed at the prospect of Yosser continuing .. tactically average, little charisma, and mediocrity seems best description .. and next year? .. won't be anywhere near top 4 IMO .. get rid of him, and Cook, and get the Arabs connected with someone in football who can find someone with more ambition and talent, than either of those 2 .. all this steady biz sounds pretty lame given all the money there's supposedly available
ReplyDeleteWe are supposed to be going forward,but i see no progress at all from when SGE was here...2 away wins all season ,almost the most defeats in the prem...well thats totally unexceptable for me.Hughes should be replaced...his signings are mediocre,he signs Zab as a defender and plays him midfield',sorry don't understand that one...
ReplyDeleteRichards will never be a top rightback...he perseveres with Ched Evans,Caicedo when he has far better options available.
He has as much pulling power as 'frankenstein'
Roll on next season.....and then they might decide to sack him....
CTID
Zabaleta was a right back/right mid when we signed him and he has played well in midfield so I understand it completely.
ReplyDeleteIt seems a lot of people just want another summer of uncertainty, why though?
I'm very pleased he's staying.
ReplyDeleteI've alot of faith in the man.
Rob Fielding
It is truly sad that when we all as fans get our wildest dreams answered in having the good fortune to get an owner who has limitless amounts of lucre we leave the spending and managing of the team in the hands of someone who is blatantly not competent tactically or motivationally.
ReplyDeleteI think this is the reason the stadium is for the most part silent and we have lost a lot of our joy for our great club.
Gary, I do not want uncertainty either. I want a quick appointment of a competent manager who is used to managing a major club, who has a winning managerial record (at a club who had years of turmoil before he came)and has tactical adeptness with a cv that attracts respect amongst the type of players who we need to convince to take a risk with their careers by joining us. Mancini springs to mind off the top of my head and his agent said he would be honoured to manage City.
The only certainty I can see for next season is that we will be reduced to playing like Blackburn but with over priced mid table players and told we should be happy not being relegated while our management team plant nasty stories in the press blaming our most talented players for their failings.
On £3M a year I expect a manager to take responsibility rather than bad mouth his own players, the prev manager etc. The only thing Hughes has done is make excuses and empty promises of jam tomorrow and yet given us rubbish today and over the season. In all environments any manager who is reduced to playing the blame card just demonstrates he is just not up to the job. His failings are obvious to everyone just retaining him for the sake of continuity will only further damage the club we all love. Obviously as he is staying I hope I am wrong and you are right but I just do not see it at all.
Oh and as for Gary Cooke describing this season of missed opportunity as pleasing. He seriously needs to up his game too. The objective this season was comfortable top 6 not 10th after spending large parts of the season around the relegation zone. I can only assume he got his MBA from the same business school George Bush got his at.
ReplyDeleteI seriously think that Hughes is not the man to bring us great things.
ReplyDeleteWe must hire a top-notched manager to match with the status of MAN-City, he is out of his depth, Man.City is not blackburn...
I have no confidence that Huhges will lead this team to champ league football by observing the way City are showing mediocre performance on the pitch. :(
City lady, You say we need a manager that has a cv that will get players respect, Mark Hughes should be respected, he was a top pro. So if they don't respect him I can't see them respecting anyone, nevermind the fact that grown men should have respect for the man in charge of them whom ever it may be.
ReplyDeleteIt may be the wrong decision to keep him but how are we ever going to find out when we don't give these guys a chance.
A new manager now would not be as simple as it sounds when you say get a new manager in quick. Mark Hughes has already started moulding the club into the way he would like it, a new manager now would cause untold disruption.
Gary I respect and understand your opinion but I suppose I am along with a lot of fans, genuinely worried that despite our owners vast wealth, if the team keep churning out the £120M cumulative dross of this season alongside the media derision then he may lose interest. If he doesn't due to that then he may do so when our only world class player Robinho wants out (which he will if we do not make top 4 next season). He put his reputation on the line joining us. He was made promises about the ambition of the club and so were we and, I am sure pleased with tenth losing half our games and sticking with out of form or just not good enough defenders and tactics wasn't mentioned to him in the negotiations to get him to sign for us.
ReplyDeleteDon't get me wrong, I know Robinho, though good is a fair weather player but it is important to retain him in our squad to help attract some world class players and from our owners perspective Abu Dhabi wants to be associated with success and the higher standard of player you have the easier it is to blend them in with the homegrown talent. My doubts about Hughes started very early last season, I think it was when Cooke was joking after the takeover about how he was attempting to get Hughes to look at players outside of his comfort zone and not just ones he had worked with before. I thought then that Chelsea and us would have been far better off with each others manager rather than the one we had and I think the season has proved that. I suppose as most others despite my doubts I will be backing the team fully at the games and would never abuse them or Hughes but that doesn't mean I am happy with him. Change is not always a negative. If it is for the right reason it can reap a lot of rewards and progress a business. Lets just hope we do make 4th next season with Hughes as if he is a disaster as this term then there is another season of broken dreams gone and there is no guarantee we will ever get this chance again.
Yeah I totally know where you are coming from, but I think it all stems from frustration. I think that if you look at the big picture then keeping him is the right decision, whether it turns out right or wrong.
ReplyDeleteThis reads like a ManUre message board from the late 80's calling for Taggarts head.
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning of last season Hughes was touted as the best young manager in football by better judges than me and you. I tend to think they are right and once he has the players he wants in the system he wants and a decent run without injuries i can see us really having an impct.