Thoughts on Hughes’s job security
It’s extremely overly simplistic to lay the blame at the feet of Mark Hughes for the club’s shambolic form of the past two months or for last season’s pathetic underachievement, but at what point is the chairman left with no other option? Failure to advance past Arsenal’s kiddie corps or an end to that bitchin’ unbeaten run on the weekend will only intensify the heat on Hughes. And at some point, it’s going to become a distraction to the club.
I’m all for giving managers time, and I loathe the kneejerk stuff we see at clubs like Chelsea and Real Madrid, but Hughes’s situation at City rapidly is becoming untenable. If an awful two-month winless slump despite playing roadkill like Burnley and Hull City and playing some very, very winnable fixtures in @Wigan, Fulham, and @Brum can’t get your manager sacked, how can the club look perspective transfers in the eye and tell them they’re serious about this Best Club in the World business?
Benitez picked up some injuries to his two best players, suffered through a 1-3-5 stretch, and oddsmakers thought the man who won Europe was getting the sack. And Benitez beat United during that span.
Do you really think any of the clubs with whom City are competing would tolerate a run like the one we’ve seen the past two months at City? Even Ferguson would be in hot water with those returns.
At a certain point, City can’t legitimately claim to have ambition if they’re sitting by and accepting unacceptable results like we’ve seen the past two months. And I’m not sure sacking the goalkeeping coach or Bowen is really going to send the necessary message. I think it has to be the gaffer who goes. And while that might not be fair to Hughes, the club has to act in its own best interests.
