When patience ran out

A nice look at the situation from David Conn today, in which, contrary to some opinion, the decision to sack Hughes was very much made by the owners of the club, and not Garry Cook and/or Brian Marwood:

The view began to harden that something did have to change. Hughes had the same first-team coaching staff, including his former Welsh playing colleagues Mark Bowen, Eddie Niedzwiecki and Glyn Hodges, who have worked alongside him since he started out in management with his national team 10 years ago. In that, Hughes embodies old-style football man's loyalty, and he has stuck by his men, and their methods, throughout.

From Abu Dhabi, Mansour and Khaldoon looked at their Premier League acquisition and considered that they had lavishly improved everything, the playing squad, training ground, stadium and all the supporting infrastructure – of which they believe Marwood's contribution to be a significant plus – but the one area which had stayed the same was Hughes and his coaching staff. They formed the view, which looks hasty to many in football but does not feel that way to them, that if they left Hughes in charge, the performances were not going to improve.

As I wrote yesterday, regardless of your view on the fairness of Hughes's sacking, there was plenty of justification for it, and there has been plenty over the past dozen games to suggest sufficient progress was not being made.

What is puzzling though is that Khaldoon went at length to strongly defend Hughes at times of criticism, and often preached values such as loyalty and patience. However, with the very real possibility of Champions League qualification being attained, patience took a back seat for the 'right now' mentality.

History will of course judge as to whether the correct decision has been made, but what is clear is that the virtues of patience, a measured approach and the long term view are no longer going to afforded.