Official: Mark Hughes Out, Roberto Mancini In
By: Rob | December 19th, 2009
The news that has been following the Premier League around all day has finally been made official, Mark Hughes has been sacked by Manchester City, and has been replaced by former Inter manager Roberto Mancini.
Hughes this afternoon led City to a 4-3 win against Sunderland, but the writing was already on the wall. Its a tough break for Hughes – although he has had over a year since the new ownership, he has really only had since the end of last season to really play around with the money.
City will presumably be hoping that Hughes will wind up being Raineri to Mancini’s Jose Mourinho.
At the end of the day, it is the draws that have cost Hughes his job. In a season where all the top sides are underperforming to some degree, and the title race looks pretty open, City could easily be challenging for the title, and yet a huge run of draws has meant they are really only challenging for a top four spot.
They are in a decent position to get that top four spot, but with how tight it is, perhaps the powers that be at City thought that they should be doing a wee bit better than they actually are.
Where next for Mark Hughes? My immediate thought was Liverpool, but even taking City into account seeing someone who was indentifiable with Manchester United for so long be appointed at Anfield would be an odd turn of events. So I’m not really sure where he can go.
Mancini has 3 Serie A titles to his name (although not all on merit, and he was sacked for a lack of progression in Europe) and a few Coppa Italia’s, but he’s not yet managed in England (though he did briefly play here at the end of his career).
It remains to be seen what he can do with the club, but ultimately it would seem to need to be streamlined into a quality squad and a strong arm – rather like Jose Mourinho did successfully at Chelsea.
He’ll have former Manchester United No2 Brian Kidd in at his side, which should be a plus, but he has got a big ask on his hands – lets be honest, his employers have proved themselves to not be the most patient bunch.
So, will he be a success? Was it a good move to be shot of Hughes? Your thoughts, as always are welcome.
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Comments
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Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. Should have stayed at Blackburn.
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A nicer guy? I hope you are speaking of mark hughes being a nice guy… He should’ve stayed at blackburn though, no doubt
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Terrible move all round. Mancini is a chronic underachiever. Hughes will land somewhere, and excel — Bolton, West Ham?
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How is he a chronic underachiever? He did win three Scudetti on the trot. Not saying he’s a great coach or anything but he won something.
Hughes wasn’t exactly taking this team places in any case. -
The Mubaraks should’ve waited till the end of the season though.
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Why should he have stayed at Blackburn? He’d taken them as far as he could and the club were just about to sell/lose some of their best players (Friedel/Bentley etc). Can’t blame him for wanting a new challenge there.
I do feel a bit sorry for Hughes, but he more than likely knew the risks at a club with unrealistically over-ambitious, impatient owners.
Strange that they have replaced him with Mancini though. Had it been Hiddink I could understand but Mancini hardly guarantees success.
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people talking without knowing what mancini has achieved in all his short managerial career.
before going to inter, he did took an unfancied fiorentina to coppa italia, not a shabby feat, considering all the while players not being paid. how’s that for a superb man management. just imagine avram grant now, guiding pompey to a FA cup victory, with all his disgruntled players not being paid for weeks…
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This is nothing but Fabio Capello fever. Watch England suck donkey balls @ World cup and suddenly Carlo Ancelotti and Roberto Mancini will be termed as awful managers and will be sent back to Italy.
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For what it’s worth, I meant that Hughes is kind of an awful person, and I’m glad he’s fired–he’s really suited to managing a lower-table team. And for what it’s worth, as an Arsenal fan, I’m a bit unsettled by the appointment of Mancini–I feel pretty much the same way I did when Abramovich hired Jose. Mancini did win multiple Serie A titles with Inter, so he’s got a track record of domestic success.
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What a bunch of crap, he was at a lower table team!!!!! man sh£ty, the wanabees… maybe he should have stayed at Blackburn but when the opportunity comes to move to a bigger club, any one in there right mind would move, can’t think of any that hasn’t??
Sparky the scapegoat for a bunch of rag heads who want it know and can’t wait, mancini won’t do much better, not this year any way…
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for what it’s worth, when Mancini won his Serie A titles he had far and away the strongest squad in Italy. Two suitable players at every position and a world class XI, when most of Italy was struggling from the punishments of the match-fixing scandal. Let’s see what he can do with real competition.
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lol people are writing off mancini even before it begins. really hope he can prove the doubters wrong. for all its worth, he’s a gentleman and a world class manager.
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Hughes should’ve stayed at Blackburn. I say this because he went to Man City before the takeover there happened. You knew the new owners were going gonna sack him quite easily because he was never their choice. The writing was on the wall from the get go in my opinion.
Either way, I dislike Hughes haha -
@ Ash, world class manager is a bit much. He has been humbled tactically many times throughout his career and his man management skills have been less than stellar.
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IMO the mistakes Hughes made were defensively. Thinking Bridge is a quality left back just because he is one of the few Englishmen who can kick with his left foot. Thinking Toure and or Lescott were better than Richard Dunne. Outside of that he had City playing good football.
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Hi, what anti spam tool do you use? Is it working for you or..? I would really love it if you could answer this question! Thanks!
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