BETTER DAYS
After wowing the English premier league by leading Blackburn into Europe during his second season in charge, former Welsh manager Mark Hughes was heralded - rightly so - as one of the best young managers on the British Isles. As manager of Blackburn, Hughes formed a formidable top half team while operating on a dime budget. The Welshman showed an eye for spotting cheap talent with the purchases of former Porto starlet Benni McCarthy(£2 million), current Tottenham flop David Bentley (£500,000), Ryan Nelsen (free), Stephen Warnock (£1.5 million) and Christopher Samba (£400,000). He acquired former Bayern Munich flop cum Premier League darling Roque Santa Cruz for £3.5 million and miraculously managed to get the best out of everyone’s least favorite player Robbie Savage (£3 million) and much traveled party boy/trouble maker Craig Bellamy (£5 million).
During his tenure at Blackburn, Sparky - as he’s affectionately known - led the team to three consecutive F.A. Cup semi-finals and a second knock-out round place in the UEFA Cup.
After Thaskin Shinawatra sacked ex-England manager Sven Eriksson following a second half slump as Man City manager, Mark Hughes was swiftly whisked in to work his magic. According to many football pundits, “Man City hit the nail right on the head with the appointment of Mark Hughes.” With a brilliant manager at the helm and Thaskin riches, the club was headed in the right direction. The situation at Man City got even better when it was announced that Abu Dhabi United investment group had become the club’s new owners. In a mere three months, Mark Hughes went from managing a poor club (Blackburn Rovers) to managing football wealthiest club (Man City). It appeared life couldn’t get any better for the Welshman.
With unlimited funds, the club captured the signature Real Madrid’s Brazilian superstar Robinho for a British record fee of £32.4m - a mere pittance for the club’s new owners. With the signing of CSKA wonder kid Jo, former Anderlecht starlet Kompany and the return of Shawn Wright Phillips to familiar surroundings, Sparky’s magical wand was more than ready. In theory Hughes had a top eight team under his belt and, with bit of luck, he could secure a UEFA cup spot.
Despite losing to Chelsea in his first game at City, the Robino era began well as the Brazilian scored in the team’s 6-0 demolition of Portsmouth. Then came the collapse at Livepool a fortnight later where, despite leading by two goals in a game, the Reds looked flat. Shambolic displays away at Middlesbrough and Bolton in consecutive weeks definitely weren’t part of the plan. Rumors swirled that the players were frustrated with Hughes and that preferential treatment was given to Robinho. Some questioned his tactics as Micah Richards and Richard Dunne became bad players overnight. According to several City players, “… Robinho swans around doing basically what he wants — and the boss lets him get away with it. He thinks he’s untouchable and Hughes hasn’t done anything to show that he’s not.” An enigmatic Robinho? Hmm, sounds eerily similar to a certain Robinho that used to play for Real Madrid who cried his way out of the club. So Mark Hughes was at odds with one lazy Brazilian who has the club’s billionaire owners on speed dial (*3) if he fancied a coaching change. Let’s not forget Robinho’s other speed dials; *1 - his private plane to whisk him back to Brazil for some much needed tropical weather and *2 - to curse former agent Wagner Ribeiro for bringing him to Man City instead of Chelsea. Things got worse at Man City as the Welshman fell out of love with another pair of lazy Brazilians, Elano and Jo. That’s 40 - love to the Samba boys.
At the end of December, potential Champions league qualifiers - a bit of a stretch really - found themselves at the bottom half of the table with six wins, four draws and ten losses. Hughes could not wait to get his sweaty palms on the transfer kitty as he sought to remedy an under performing team. As the winter transfer window swung open the world’s wealthiest club were linked with the talented - David Villa, Didier Drogba, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo (the fat one), Andrei Arshavin, Gianluigi Buffon, Santa Cruz and Kaka - and the not so talented - Mario Gomez, Scott Parker and Craig Bellamy. Mark Hughes acknowledged that while the club was on the prowl for quality players, Man City was not going to waste money or be held ransom by clubs over its transfer targets. Things looked to take a turn for the better.
WORSE DAYS
Mark Hughes bought Wayne Bridge for £12m, Nigel De Jong for £17m and Craig Bellamy for £14m.
Man City’s interest in Kaka showed the club’s ambition, as well as their naivety. The relentless pursuit of the former world player of the year would add a great deal of class and exposure for a club dwarfed by its crosstown neighbors Manchester United. Sure it’s a bit ludicrous to bid over £100mil for a player but in all fairness Kaka’s parent club Milan weren’t gonna let him go on the cheap. Whether Kaka fancied a move from the glitz and glamour of Milan to the wet and frigid alleys of Manchester is a separate debate but no one could ever accuse Man City for not living up to its promise of bringing in the world’s best players. On the other hand Mark Hughes capture of Wayne Bridge for £12mil is rather questionable. Even more questionable is forking a £100,000 weekly wage bill for his services. That’s £12mil & £100,000 a week salary for a very average left back. If Mark Hughes fancied paying ridiculous sums for average left backs instead of buying quality ones, how about we gave him a helping hand. For the same fee, he could have signed Marseille’s Taye Taiwo or Shaktar Donetsk’s Srna (adept at both full back positions) - both par with Wayne Bridge.. And since money is no object for Mark Hughes, why did he not splash big on a bit of quality and bid £20mil for Phillip Lahm, Giorgio Chiellini or Eric Abidal - i’m quite certain Barcelona would let go of the latter.
Heads were further turned when Man City announced it had signed Hamburg’s Nigel De Jong. Plaudits rained in for Mark Hughes until it was revealed the Welshman signed the Dutchman for £17m when he could have secured the player for a mere £2mil in the summer. It was pretty obvious Man City needed a quality defensive midfielder to partner Vincent Kompany but once again Hughes spent foolishly. For £17m, I bet you and I could come up with better players to purchase. You might fancy taking a pop at Lille’s Rio Mavuba or Bordeaux’s Alou Diarra while I would take a closer look at Miguel Veloso or Anatoliy Tymoshuck. The fact is that the aforementioned players are more experienced, probably better, and cost just as much. The same could be said for £14m Craig Bellamy. I’m sorry but Craig Bellamy and £14m should never be included in the same sentence. Why bring a golf club-wielding trouble maker into an unsettled team? Ah, i get it - nice guys finish last.
Along with abject transfer dealings, Man City’s performances are still lacking. Hughes has failed to address his team’s main hurdle, C-O-N-C-E-N-T-R-A-T-I-O-N. If games ended after 45 mins of play, Man City would sit in 6th place with 39 points - 2 points shy of third place Arsenal. Add to that the 4th worst away record and its current 11th place position in the league, and it’s safe to say Mark Hughes isn’t exactly living up to those lofty expectations.
One more thing.
It’s quite remarkable to witness the transformation of Mark Hughes from a very responsible manager at Blackburn to a slightly irresponsible manager at Man City. At Blackburn with a limited budget, Hughes took it upon himself to bargain shop for good players but at Man City he’s made a U-turn and fancies spending lavishly for the same talent. Of course some point to club’s quadrupling their prices once Man City come knocking but the fact is if money is no object and Hughes finds it hard to replicate his Blackburn days, he should spend the millions wisely by over-spending for quality players not named Craig Bellamy.
If Mark Hughes is to live up to his billing as one of the best young British managers, he is surely going about it the wrong way.
(Article published on SnippetSoccer on Mar 6, 2009)
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