Rome was not built in a day. as we are often told; quite how many it was actually built in is beside the point – longer-term planning almost always bears fruit eventually, whether it is football or to suit this hugely convoluted segue, city building. This conveniently brings me to the somewhat surprising appointment made by QPR of former Blackburn, Manchester City and Fulham boss Mark Hughes this week, a move so startlingly short-sighted it cannot help but be to the detriment of the club further down the line.
Neil Warnock was rather harshly ushered out the back door just before he was given the chance to spend any of the January funds promised to him by Chairman Tony Fernandes. Warnock, is a Championship manager through and through. The Premier League’s level has always seemed a bit beyond him. However, at QPR, he has certainly been given a bum deal. Despite the club’s poor recent form, few would doubt that with significant reinforcements in January, he could at least guarantee them something approaching mid-table obscurity. Alas, that was not to be the case.
Fernandes has entrusted QPR’s Premier League future in the hands of Mark Hughes – a manager very much of a Premier League standard, but quite crucially, and I cannot emphasise this point enough, not as good as he thinks he is.
The feeling persists that Hughes still feels that he was dealt a raw deal, quite ironically given the nature of Warnock’s departure, after falling short of the infamous ‘trajectory of results’ laid out to him by former Manchester City chief executive Garry Cook – this led to Hughes’s sacking and the hiring of Roberto Mancini; a manager with the profile that the club had wanted all along.
The truth of the matter is, that despite proving himself at Blackburn to be a manager of genuine pedigree and quality, with an eye for a bargain, at Manchester City he proved anything but, needlessly wasting millions on average players with no long-term thought behind them or the style of football that they would go on to play. A strong sense of injustice still dominates a man that clearly wasn’t ready to take a club with the potential that City undoubtedly had, to the next level.
He left Fulham last season after a decidedly steady campaign, with Hughes departing leaving the club in 8th position in the league and with an entrance into the Europa League for a second successive season via the Fair Play league table.
Upon leaving Fulham, Hughes told reporters: “As a young, ambitious manager I wish to move on to further my experiences. I believe my management team and I have done a good job and the club has a strong foundation from which they can go forward.
“I would also like to take this opportunity to clarify that neither myself nor my representative have approached or have been approached by another club. This decision to leave Fulham has not been influenced by any outside party.”
This was of course in reference to Hughes being touted for a job with Aston Villa, although one suspects that he was keeping an equally keen eye on the available Chelsea job prior to Andre Villas-Boas’ appointment.
After glimpsing a taste of the higher echelons, Hughes obviously feels that he belongs there and that his managerial ability merits a place at the top table. I have my reservations. A move to Aston Villa never materialised and what appeared as a bold gesture designed to make him seem more employable, inevitably turned sour and resulted in a spell doing the rounds of Monday night football, peering in from the sidelines.