carlyluvsunited
13-11-2007, 03:54 PM
Mark Hughes Has Qualities To Succeed Sir Alex
When Mark Hughes glanced over at the home dugout at Old Trafford yesterday,
he could be forgiven for wondering if he might be standing there once Sir Alex
Ferguson has gone. Because when the next big managerial appointment is
made, Hughes will be near the top of most lists.
If you are a chairman of a leading club, you do not necessarily want a manager
for whom flamboyant football comes as standard. You want someone whose first
priority is to make the side hard to beat and who then builds on that. You want
someone whose record in the transfer market is solid - because you would be
trusting a manager with £20 million cheques. Hughes' record in all these respects
is very similar to that of Ferguson himself.
If you want an indication of his quality, just compare Blackburn's spending to that
of Tottenham. His priority when he came to Ewood Park in 2004 was survival. He
has shifted the club's horizons upwards and done it quietly, competently and
without spending vast amounts of money. To any chairman, these are qualities
worth pursuing.
If Hughes is well placed to succeed Ferguson, the danger for him is that he is at a
club like Blackburn, who because of their lack of resources are quite capable of
suffering a sticky spell or a sticky season at the moment when the job he has
been waiting all his managerial life for suddenly becomes available. But any
major club looking for a new manager would have to consider his achievements
as a whole, not just at Blackburn but with Wales.
What is unusual about Hughes is that he was a leading player and these days
management is an option few at the very top of the game consider. If you look
around, the only man comparable to Hughes is Roy Keane at Sunderland, and
although Keane has completely revived the club, he has yet to prove himself in
the Premier League, an arena that Hughes has flourished in for three years now.
What is interesting is that Ferguson himself did not believe that Hughes had what
it takes to become a manager; he thought he was too quiet. But don't let
anybody kid you that the guy shouting his head off in the centre circle is the one
who has the best understanding of what's going on.
And these days no manager can rule purely by fear. You can no longer threaten a
Premier League player that if he doesn't perform the financial rewards will not be
there. The money is there the moment you step out on to the pitch. And if you
have talent, ultimately, you can say to yourself that it doesn't matter how well
you perform at Blackburn, you always have the option to move on.
Those are the ingredients Hughes has had to work with and he has to stress to
those individuals - whether it's David Bentley or Benni McCarthy - that their
future lies at Blackburn.
And though they may be at different stages in their managerial careers, Hughes
shares many qualities with Harry Redknapp; someone who has never quite
received the credit that he deserves. Unlike Hughes, Redknapp is reaching the
end of his career but it is one that seems more impressive the longer you study it.
He has been able to switch from developing and relying on a generation of young
players at West Ham to backing himself at Portsmouth with the experience of
David James, Kanu and Sol Campbell, who probably only went to Portsmouth
because of Redknapp.
That is a solid body of achievement and, like Hughes, you have to judge the
manager by where the club were when he took over and where they are now.
When Redknapp returned for his second spell at Fratton Park, Portsmouth looked
certainties to be relegated. Had they gone down, it could well have been all over
for them. The Championship is riddled with clubs that have fallen from the
Premier League and never recovered and there is every chance it could have
happened to Portsmouth.
Redknapp not only saved them from relegation, he has turned Portsmouth into a
club that, like Blackburn, will not be breaking into the Champions League places
but would back themselves to feature in the top six. And that, by anybody's
standards, is a remarkable story.www.telegraph.co.uk/hansen
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When Mark Hughes glanced over at the home dugout at Old Trafford yesterday,
he could be forgiven for wondering if he might be standing there once Sir Alex
Ferguson has gone. Because when the next big managerial appointment is
made, Hughes will be near the top of most lists.
If you are a chairman of a leading club, you do not necessarily want a manager
for whom flamboyant football comes as standard. You want someone whose first
priority is to make the side hard to beat and who then builds on that. You want
someone whose record in the transfer market is solid - because you would be
trusting a manager with £20 million cheques. Hughes' record in all these respects
is very similar to that of Ferguson himself.
If you want an indication of his quality, just compare Blackburn's spending to that
of Tottenham. His priority when he came to Ewood Park in 2004 was survival. He
has shifted the club's horizons upwards and done it quietly, competently and
without spending vast amounts of money. To any chairman, these are qualities
worth pursuing.
If Hughes is well placed to succeed Ferguson, the danger for him is that he is at a
club like Blackburn, who because of their lack of resources are quite capable of
suffering a sticky spell or a sticky season at the moment when the job he has
been waiting all his managerial life for suddenly becomes available. But any
major club looking for a new manager would have to consider his achievements
as a whole, not just at Blackburn but with Wales.
What is unusual about Hughes is that he was a leading player and these days
management is an option few at the very top of the game consider. If you look
around, the only man comparable to Hughes is Roy Keane at Sunderland, and
although Keane has completely revived the club, he has yet to prove himself in
the Premier League, an arena that Hughes has flourished in for three years now.
What is interesting is that Ferguson himself did not believe that Hughes had what
it takes to become a manager; he thought he was too quiet. But don't let
anybody kid you that the guy shouting his head off in the centre circle is the one
who has the best understanding of what's going on.
And these days no manager can rule purely by fear. You can no longer threaten a
Premier League player that if he doesn't perform the financial rewards will not be
there. The money is there the moment you step out on to the pitch. And if you
have talent, ultimately, you can say to yourself that it doesn't matter how well
you perform at Blackburn, you always have the option to move on.
Those are the ingredients Hughes has had to work with and he has to stress to
those individuals - whether it's David Bentley or Benni McCarthy - that their
future lies at Blackburn.
And though they may be at different stages in their managerial careers, Hughes
shares many qualities with Harry Redknapp; someone who has never quite
received the credit that he deserves. Unlike Hughes, Redknapp is reaching the
end of his career but it is one that seems more impressive the longer you study it.
He has been able to switch from developing and relying on a generation of young
players at West Ham to backing himself at Portsmouth with the experience of
David James, Kanu and Sol Campbell, who probably only went to Portsmouth
because of Redknapp.
That is a solid body of achievement and, like Hughes, you have to judge the
manager by where the club were when he took over and where they are now.
When Redknapp returned for his second spell at Fratton Park, Portsmouth looked
certainties to be relegated. Had they gone down, it could well have been all over
for them. The Championship is riddled with clubs that have fallen from the
Premier League and never recovered and there is every chance it could have
happened to Portsmouth.
Redknapp not only saved them from relegation, he has turned Portsmouth into a
club that, like Blackburn, will not be breaking into the Champions League places
but would back themselves to feature in the top six. And that, by anybody's
standards, is a remarkable story.www.telegraph.co.uk/hansen
Click below to join manutdtalk.com and read all
breaking news on all things United !!!
http://manutdtalk.com/forums/register.php