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Everyone is being far too happy and nice to each other today. So I thought I'd dig up an old debate.

He has done remarkably this year to take Stoke to 9th with very little money and turn them into a side that are almost watchable.

His record before coming to us was a good as any young manager around at the time. A fantastic job at Wales and Blackburn.

His record with us was not that impressive and I don't want to go other old ground too much but I do believe like his replacement he would have taken us into the Champions League the next season but doubt he would have taken us to the next level. He signed Kompany, Zabaleta at very low prices considering what they have done for us. I don't think his time with us proves he is a bad manager but was ill equipped to deal with the demands put on him much like Moyes was this season at United.

Did a very good job at Fulham. It's been all down hill since he left.

He kept QPR up against the odds and then it all went seriously pear shaped. Then again, the savour of English football did not turn it around with the same group of players. A basket case of a club and I think it would be unfair to judge him on this job alone.

I doubt he will ever get a chance to manage a club that can challenge for the league again. I do think Villa, Newcastle or Spurs would not go wrong by appointing him manager for next season.

History will look back on him more kindly than we did at the time.
I always think he gets a very harsh review from our fans. He was far from the disaster that people make him out to be.
Before coming to us he had worked wonders with both Wales and then Blackburn on a shoe string budget. He had also shown he had a real eye for a bargain and got the best out of his players.

When he became our manager we were nowhere near the force we are today. We had finished the second half of the previous season playing like a relegation threatened side and I'll stand by my judgement that it was the right and sensible appointment at the time. He was strongly linked with the Chelsea job at the time aswell remember.

Then everything changed in almost a matter of seconds we became the richest club with huge lofty ambitions and everyone was scrutinizing us, wanting us to fail. It was a very difficult season of transition and I don't think many managers could have done much better. There was still some great football on show and the game against Hamburg still probably remains my favorite match/atmosphere of recent years.

He ultimately wasn't good enough but he wasn't a disaster. When he left we were in 6th, we finished 5th that season. Not to mention he also signed the likes of Zabaleta, Kompany, Barry, Dejong, Bellamy, Tevez and Lescott who all played a huge part in our rise.

I think that without having oodles of cash, he is a bloody good manager to get a team clear of relegation, up the league table and pushing for a European spot.

I feel though that with cash in his hands, he is afflicted much as Joe Royal was, by moving away from the core thing he did well, getting good solid players and building an effective team with not much money. He becomes wasteful and self indulgent, and he seems to have less of an eye for a player when he starts dealing in the £10m + bracket.

Perhaps he struggles to reconcile a players ability with the effect that player would have on the dressing room (Tevez, Adebayor, Robinho to name a few).

He should stick to what he is good at, which is building solid sides which are hard to beat and perform consistently, whilst using his scouting network to pick up bargains either in the form of players who have fallen from grace (Bellamy, Santa Cruz, Bentley at Blackburn), or rough diamonds who can perform well in specific systems.

If you think back to his best signings for us, Kompany, Zabaleta were both real bargains, as arguably was Barry, and all his expensive deals have now been moved on. Some managers just shouldn't be trusted with money

Im_Spartacus wrote:Some managers just shouldn't be trusted with money

There are quite a few managers that you can tar with that brush. Martin O'Neil sticks out the most in my mind. Could work miracles with average players but once you gave him a bit of money to play with he spent it like a kid in a sweetie shop. Think of all MON teams and think about who was the goalkeeper. A bizarre blind spot for a top class manager at one point. Alex McLiesh is another. I guess you can add Moyes to that list now.

ross.mcfc wrote:
There are quite a few managers that you can tar with that brush. Martin O'Neil sticks out the most in my mind. Could work miracles with average players but once you gave him a bit of money to play with he spent it like a kid in a sweetie shop. Think of all MON teams and think about who was the goalkeeper. A bizarre blind spot for a top class manager at one point. Alex McLiesh is another. I guess you can add Moyes to that list now.

Dogleash in second spell at dippers.

Arry Redknapp. Bankrupted most clubs he has been at

ross.mcfc wrote:
There are quite a few managers that you can tar with that brush. Martin O'Neil sticks out the most in my mind. Could work miracles with average players but once you gave him a bit of money to play with he spent it like a kid in a sweetie shop. Think of all MON teams and think about who was the goalkeeper. A bizarre blind spot for a top class manager at one point. Alex McLiesh is another. I guess you can add Moyes to that list now.

Absolutely right, some managers' real talent lies with just coaching the best out of limited players, and it all goes tits up the minute they get all exotic and start splashing the cash.

I always remember dreading our first season back in the prem, as I recall Royle was excellent at Oldham, then less so at Everton where he was wasteful with the resources he had. True to form, he made some appalling signings the minute we got a bit of cash behind us and promptly saw us relegated.

You are right with MON, possibly Moyes as he was a real slave to the system he had created at Everton that fitted that geoup of players well, but was clearly not suited to better players and he was unable to adapt. McLeish I have never rated full stop, but a surprising one I can think off would be Ferguson, who did appallingly badly in the transfer market in his early days, and continued to make more howlers throughout his tenure - his biggest signings with the exception of veron were nailed on successes (Rooney, Ferdinand, Van Persie), but when he was dealing in the middle of the market, his successes were quite few and far between. His best (less obvious) signings were Schmeichel, Irwin, Cantona picked up at decent prices and the basis of what propelled united to success

We will see how he does next season.

ross.mcfc wrote:

Im_Spartacus wrote:Some managers just shouldn't be trusted with money

There are quite a few managers that you can tar with that brush. Martin O'Neil sticks out the most in my mind. Could work miracles with average players but once you gave him a bit of money to play with he spent it like a kid in a sweetie shop. Think of all MON teams and think about who was the goalkeeper. A bizarre blind spot for a top class manager at one point. Alex McLiesh is another. I guess you can add Moyes to that list now.

I agree with what you say about Hughes, and also think that MON is a good example of managers struggling with money, but unless I'm missing something his choices of goalkeeper have been fairly solid in light of the resources he had available everywhere. Keller was decent and was replaced by Flowers, Rab Douglas in the Scottish league when he was also Scotland keeper was understandable but I can't say I know a great deal about him, he signed Friedel for Villa who is widely respected and then played Mignolet most of the time at Sunderland.

A rag cunt. Hughes and Stoke are match made in heaven though.

I recon his record re signings for City is excellent & he did a great job during a hugely difficult time.

If you had asked Mancini or Pellegrini to come into the club, with Thaksin's mates doing deals to sell players without consulting the manager etc, they would tell you to fuck off.

He kept the club together during all that shit & got through qualification to the UEFA Cup, with a fullback who was signing for Spurs, & bits & pieces players, then brought in Pablo Zabaleta to replace Corluka, who the phoney agents had sold.

Then he found Kompany, De Jong, & Lescott, eventually brought in Tevez.

People like to harp on about a couple of signings which went wrong. Hughes was keen on Santa Cruz, basically to do what Negredo does now, & it was a failure. But someone somewhere did a medical on him & passed him.

Most of Hughes' other signings were understandable & some of them excellent, some turned out to be a mistake.

All mangers make mistakes in the market just the same, all of them. Mancini for instance signed Boateng, Savic & Nastasic to replace Lescott & ended up with Lescott.

Hughes was unlikely to have delivered the title, but he did a bloody good job with the rest of it & I recon he would have won the League Cup.