City owners inpatient in sacking Mark Hughes

So just like Santa Claus Mark Hughes has got the sack this Christmas. Bad Christmas jokes apart, I think Manchester City have been harsh on the former Wales boss.

Successor lined up

Mark Hughes insisted he had no knowledge of his fate till after the game. Yet he seemed to wave goodbye to the City fans and so did his assistant Mark Bowen.

It didn’t take long for the Citizens to find a replacement. Hughes replacement former Inter boss Roberto Mancini being installed as the new City chief.

Rumours

There were rumours recently that City had approached Guus Hiddink according to Hiddink’s agent, who is a friend of Manchester City chief executive Garry Cook. That started speculation over the future of City boss Mark Hughes. His future has now been cleared up and his future isn’t at City.

Too much expectation

As the phrase goes Rome wasn’t built in a day and football clubs aren’t either. Mark Hughes couldn’t build a Premier League title winning side in just 15 months. I don’t think any manager takes over a midtable Premier League side and transforms them into a title winning team in such little time. That just doesn’t happen. When you consider Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal have all been ensconced in the top four of the Premier League for so long. It was always going to be hard to break that monopoly.

Then you look at Aston Villa, who have been improving slowly under the excellent Martin O’Neill and Tottenham have also made big strides under Harry Redknapp. Its hard for a side to try and establish themselves in the top six never mind the top four.

I think the City owners expected to spend a few hundred million and immediately win the Premier League title. That’s not how the Premier League works. Manchester United didn’t achieve immediate success under Sir Alex Ferguson but stuck with the Scot and the rest is history.

Chelsea is another good example they didn’t just go from being a midtable team to immediate title challengers. When Roman Abramovich arrived the club were in the top four already and were not far off the top spot. When the new owners at City they were going nowhere.

Good manager

Mark Hughes is a good manager but I don’t think he was ready to be a boss of a club that have such ambitious plans. He was decent at Blackburn and a move to Manchester City seemed like a decent one. Then just before the transfer window closed the Abu Dhabi United group took over the club and suddenly the club were the richest in the world.

It sounds strange but its the worst thing that could of happened to Mark Hughes. City went from a side who could be expected to challenge for the European places at best, to a club expected to compete at the very top of the Premier League. Hughes was then out of his depth. Unlike at Blackburn, suddenly every move he made was scrutinised by the media and he was expected to win every game.

Borrowed time

I always felt that Mark Hughes wouldn’t last long at City because he wasn’t the typical continental coach. He didn’t have experience at the top level of club football. I always had a feeling that if things went a little wrong then Hughes wouldn’t get much time to fix things and he didn’t really.

As City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarek said two wins out of eleven games is not a great record. However they are just six points of the top four with a game in hand. Its not the worse position to be in and they could have pushed on from that position to challenge for a Champions League spot.

What next for Hughes

Mark Hughes is a football man and I can’t see him being out of the game for long. It wont be long before he gets another Premier League job. I even heard an absurd comment from one Evertonian that Everton should sack David Moyes and hire the Welshman. That might be wide of the mark but under-pressure Premier League managers will looking over their shoulders now even more nervously.