Sparky to Bantams has left me baffled
IWAS on holiday in Tenerife when I walked past a bar and saw Mark Hughes being interviewed on TV. My phone had been switched off, so I wasn’t up on the news. I honestly thought he must have joined a club in Greece or China, a bit like Chris Coleman.
I went in, saw the badge, and thought ‘Oh my God, is that Bradford?’. I genuinely couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
It’s a real left-field appointment, and probably one of the most inexplicable things I’ve ever seen in football. I just don’t understand it.
This is a guy who has never played outside the top-flight, unless you count Barcelona and Bayern Munich. Who has never managed outside the Premier League.
So to suddenly drop down to League Two - I just don’t get his motivation, unless he was that desperate to work again. Maybe he has seen the way football has changed at the elite level and given up trying to get back there.
He certainly doesn’t need money. The pay-off from being sacked by Manchester City a decade ago should have set him up for life.
Don’t get me wrong - Mark Hughes is a big name on paper, who has enjoyed a lot of success in his career. But you have to question how much he will actually know about the players. How much he will know about the division.
Solid
How will he cope - no disrespect - with players who aren’t at the level of the people he coached at Man City, Stoke or QPR?
Guys like Lee Angol, Andy Cook and Theo Robinson are good, solid players. But they aren’t going to take on information like Vincent
Kompany.
Roy Keane, who turned down Sunderland recently, is a classic example of someone who failed to manage players who weren’t up to the standards he set at Manchester United
Teddy Sheringham is another one. I know for a fact that he struggled with that aspect of things at Stevenage.
Nor do I see Hughes traipsing around watching players at League Two games every week, scouting players and opponents.
For me, you always try to see why a club has appointment someone. You think ‘Okay, he plays a style that will suit the players’ or he’ll bring X, Y and Z to the table.
Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, you can find a reason.
But, for the life of me, I just can’t work out why Bradford thought Hughes was the best possible candidate to come into a mid-table League Two club.
Reputation
Is it a statement to former boss Derek Adams, who told Bradford that they wouldn’t find a better manager when he was sacked recently?
Were they blinded by Mark’s name and reputation? You almost feel that Bradford got the CVs in, saw the name ‘Mark Hughes’ and thought ‘When will we ever get another chance to employ a Premier League manager?’.
For both parties, I hope it works out. But, hand on heart, I can’t see any scenario where this ends in success.
Even if he’s given a decent budget to sign players, I suspect it will be the man who inherits his squad who will benefit.
That’s nothing against Mark. As I say, he is a proven success in the top flight.
But it’s horses for courses in football and I can’t shake the feeling that Bradford have backed the wrong runner.