Player revolt over Hughes sacking
A potential issue for Roberto Mancini to contend with:
Craig Bellamy and Shay Given led a six-man delegation after axed Hughes made an emotional dressing speech telling them he was being replaced by the former Inter Milan boss. There is a huge amount of loyalty towards Mark, the players respect him as a manager and as a person and they can't believe he's being treated as shabbily as this.It is no surprise that the likes of Given, and particularly Bellamy, would have expressed their loyalty to Hughes over the decision to sack him and it will be an early test for Roberto Mancini to ensure a squad that Hughes very much attempted to mould in his image does not fragment."This has been done without any class whatsoever. The players were getting messages on their mobiles telling them what was going on and they decided they had to do something. They know who is behind this - Gary Cook and Brian Marwood. Six of them decided they had to say and do something so they went looking for them after the game.
"Perhaps it was a futile gesture but they had to do something because they were so furious."
Whilst there are question marks over some of Mancini's attributes, at Inter he was in charge of a very high profile squad (with plenty of ego's to match ) but by and large kept them united.
Doing the same in the early days of his City tenure will be equally as important.
11 comments:
i'm in favour of the sacking - but Garry Cook and Marwood are parasites snivelling to protect their own miserable skins. Mourinho should have been installed - he has made his desire to return to the premiership no secret - but the owners seem to have shot from the hip to appoint mancini - crap decision
Where's this shit from? The Mirror?
oh - and the players reaction was natural - but i doubt many of the "revoltees" will continue their protest when their wage slips are threatened
I said right from the start that Hughes is tactically naive and as each week went by, more andore people agreed. Now that Hughes has been sacked people are coming out in sympathy. I feel a little sorry - maybe for the timing - it should have been done 8 months ago - and I'm sure that the ? Miilions of pounds that he will get will make up for it. Mark Hughes is not Manchester City - we, the fans are Manchester City and Given, Bellamy et al should remember that! Lets hope that Mancini signs a new back four and does us proud. Cmon City!
Shame for Hughes, but we all know he was never the man to lead a team of big named players, or even a name to attract big names. A manager with 3 italian leagues and about 6 cups could be just the thing for City. Looking forward to his press conference tomorrow.
JJ 8 months you're being generous! I finally lost patience after Santander last year. Since then there have been far too many false dawns and instances of tactical ineptness. I applaud our owners for making this bold decision!
This has come from the top, not Marwood and Cooke, from the Sheik. It's his money, he has stuck by Hughes since he came here, but recent results have told him it's time for a change. Arab justice is swift and terrible. Get used to it.
....when the Sheikh took over, he immediately put a couple of shots across United's bows by making a bid for Berbatov and making them pay over the odds and send the Knight to the airport to make sure he didn't speak to us. When ManUre tried the same trick with Ett'o he immediately withdrew leaving the field open to them, making them make a humiliating hasty withdrawal (because their skint). He appeared to be very astute and more than a match for the Knight. That astuteness also seemed to transgress the british press's need to try an influence managerial recruitment so that they can sell more of their tawdry rags. Unfortunately after so many sublime moves towards gaining the respect and support of the clubs fans, he has now shown himself to be no better than any other spoilt rich kid that wants his toy and he wants it 'NOW'!!!!! What he should have been doing in order to ensure City's values and traditions stay intact was to give Hughes what he promised...ie, until the end of the year to prove himself, and in the meantime, as the only chairman of a football club in the unique position of not being vulnerable to a player holding his club to ransom in terms of transfer requests, he should have told Robinho that his ambition of becoming the worlds best player would be severely hampered if he was playing for the reserves, and that would be exactly where he would be seeing out his contract unless he started living up to his responsibilities. £32 million may well have been to much for other clubs to risk losing in the reserves, but if Mansour needed £32 million at short notice he could always lend it from his son's piggy bank. Such a harsh lesson would have ensured that every player at MCFC knew that the Manager had the backing of the owner and that his word was final! That way we'd have no 'Ronaldo's' thinking they were more important than the club and the players would be very focused on the fact that what the manager wanted was very important and distinctly connected to the outcome of their own career ambitions.
As it is, we've just got a spoilt brat who is actually turning us into CHELSKI! After 42 years of disappointed support for my beloved Manchester City, and whilst I have no doubt we will now become successful (after all since the premier league started money has always been the decisive factor in success, Sorry Alex, but whenever you've been up against anybody with equal resources like Mourinho, you do seem to come up wanting), I'm afraid I'm no longer proud of being a City fan anymore. I no longer feel we're unique. In fact give it a couple of years, and we'll just be a bunch of whinging "it's not fair, the grass is too long, the shirts are too grey, the ref has cheated us, ManUre and Chelski fans.
As for the replacement! Wenger yes Mourinho yes, even Hidink at a pinch! But Mancini!?! Like for like, does not have the gravitas or awe inspiring reputation needed to turn our expensive bunch of individuals into a team!!
So where to next for City's best player? Maybe its too soon for him to call time on his Welsh international career after all.
P.S
Succinct point Clevblue, but we're 'NOT' Arabs and contrary to the billboards at Eastlands, which I find a little disturbing, the City faith really doesn't have any place for Arabic! English club, English language please.
I'm glad Hughes and the Tafia have gone, I'm sure that they will do a top job at a mid table club... we need to axe Cook and Marwood next before they embarrass us again.
CTID
The thing i'm most disgusted with in this whole thing is "true" city fans, who brag about how long they've been fans and all, are suddenly ashamed to be a fan of the club. Really?! So we have money now (and as Mariustheancient posted himself money has always been part of the game whether you admit it or not) and there's some temp problems and you cant support anymore? Bull shit! Though i've only been a supporter about 11 years now one thing that drew me to City, rather than ManUre like my brothers, is that the supporters were true to their club through the high times and the low times! Win or lose, we still boast about our club being the best! We don't run and hide! Could the sacking have been handled better? Of course. But it's happened, we have a new manager, and the season moves on. Deal with it!
CTID no matter what the case!!
Feel bad for Hughes, mainly the way he was sacked more than anything. I wanted Hughes to work out, but how long do you give someone? He has spent plenty of cash on players and although they need time to gel it's now around halfway through the season and if anything the team looked to be getting worse as a unit rather than better, especially in defence and thats before the injuries. I often worried about the lack of a 'plan B' in games and the lack of ability to see when changes needed to be made during games. As said I feel sorry about the way it's been done but I think honestly we all should have seen it coming. I also think some of the players have to ask how much they have contributed to what has happened. It's their failings on the pitch in recent winable games that have made it happen. I think if two of those draws had been wins those four points would have saved the manager his job, but thats not the case so something had to be done and if they decided to do it in January they may as well do it now and let the new manager have a look at the squad so he knows where to fix first in Jan. Defence!!!!
I would like to say thanks to Mark Hughes and wish him the best for the future. I'm sure He will get offers for his services sooner rather than later.
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