Comments on: Mark Hughes: The most deluded man in football?

By: Hub

Hub — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 14:43:38 +0000

That’s an ill-informed opinion. The recent managerial merry-go-round was a by-product of Briatore’s absurdly large ego. With him and Ecclestone gone, Fernandes is trying to bring stability, which is why he’s sticking with Hughes. Absurd asit may seem, I still think QPR will turn it around.

By: Stan Drews

Stan Drews — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 09:26:59 +0000

Know their limits of course not no!!

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 22:01:04 +0000

Joorabchian is in my opinion a poison in football. His involvement in Corinthians and third party ownership of players should be warning enough and you would have to wonder why Hughes continues to keep such close links to him. I’m no fan of Hughes as a manager, his record in club football is poor, he is known to be aloof and distant from the players. On arrival at Fulham his first demand was to have the size of his office at the training ground increased. Now Motspur Park Training Ground is a modern, admired facility which has had plenty of investment (without the OTT luxury of CFC’s Cobham facility). The old office was not exactly small and was good enough for Hodgson amongst others. But not for Hughes (who admittedly spent most of the day in it, rather than the training pitches). But the biggest worry for QPR shouldn’t be his arrogance or ability, more the way he has managed to fill the staff positions both below and above him at the club with his close associates leaving very little control and therefore the door open to Joorabchian to do what he does best. Which seems to be making as much money as he can for himself, whatever the consequences to the Club.

By: Lee Wiffen

Lee Wiffen — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 21:34:52 +0000

The Tevez Mascherano debacle was the creation of Joorachbian. When I saw him in the Range Rover alongside Hughes during negotiations my heart sank. At least Briatore, Ecclestone and paladini were honest in their intent

By: Zeno

Zeno — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 20:01:12 +0000

Don’t forget we managed to nick a decent fee off the idiot for a very average striker in Zamora and he took sick note on a free. Wonder if he wants to sure up the Ha Ha’s defence with the international pedigree of Haliche in the next window? Shall we start the bidding at £7.5m?

By: Stan Drews

Stan Drews — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 18:04:42 +0000

An excellent piece and one that highlights Hughes’ many faults.

One of the many reasons I have more respect for players like Zamora. They no their limits and so say they won’t go into management.

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 18:03:34 +0000

The combination of director of football Rigg and Hughes should worry Rangers fans greatly with Kia Joorabchian looming in the shadows. It would certainly explain the scatter gun approach to transfers over the summer. Joorabchian had a great deal of influence on transfers at Man City working with Rigg and Hughes and you can’t help feeling the same could be happening again with an inexperienced owner. Hughes left Fulham over a stated lack of ambition, that seemed to relate to the lack of transfers he was allowed to bring in. Dembele cost over £5m but was on the Fulham radar a year before Hughes arrived. Other player purchases seem to have been restricted (sensibly when you look at the failure of players he did bring in) and that I think could be down to the lack of trust the wily Al Fayed and CEO Alistair Mcintosh had in Hughes’ relationship with Joorabchian, who is not even licensed as an agent. Conversely Funds were released to Martin Jol as soon as he joined. There were reports that Villa, who were in desperate need of a manager at the time Hughes left Fulham refused to consider Hughes because of that relationship.

By: Lee Wiffen

Lee Wiffen — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 13:47:15 +0000

Really insightful and well researched piece. I have the same feeling about the current administration as when Chris Wright owned the club. He was also a fan and in awe of his footballing heroes, so much so that he could not see the wood for the trees. Gerry Francis after Rioch and Houston took full advantage of Mr Wrights bank balance, leaving the club in a mess.

I think Fernandes is suffering a false loyalty, whilst possibly looking at the sacking clause more than likely agreed by Hughes’ talented agent Kia Joorachbian upon his appointment. He is also only looking as far as the end of his nose, and needs to cut his losses quickly with Hughes and find a manager who has a heart rather than just an ego.
Anyone who has played can be dispassionate about poor coaching and team selection and make better judgements that Mr Fernades. They would have been looking to lose Hughes after the Reading debacle in the League cup. His coaching staff, because it is they that set up the team, failed to deal with the weaknesss of Clint Hill prior to the losses against West Ham and WBA. The experienced managers Allardyce and Clarke took full advantage of Hills lack of pace to create opportunities from that flank. Any manager worth there salt would have remedied that weakness after the Reading loss. However the faceless Hughes continued to bemoan luck as the issue.
Sometimes in my bleaker moment I question the motives of Hughes and Joorachbian as a fire sale would be a great way of owning a club…but then I realise that Mr Hughes is probably not sufficiently astute to go that route. Mr Joorachbian on the other hand?

By: Fulhamjim

Fulhamjim — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 13:36:23 +0000

I think Hughes is doing a brilliant job. ;o)
He had my team in the bottom three at xmas until a players’ revolt, insisting we went back to playing the way Hodgson had us playing. A climb up the table and 7th place finish followed, before Leslie decided to leave, citing his infamous “ambition”. Cue another bunch of mugs believing his self-generated hype. I bet Al Fayed is laughing his a**e off, we get Martin Jol, you get Leslie “Chequebook” Hughes & his 8 mates!!! Suckerssss

By: James Bruce

James Bruce — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 19:36:24 +0000

Warnock had 17 points when he was axed in January I would be interested to know if Fernandes has a minimum points total in mind for Jan this season. Totally agree with that last sentence.