BS4 on Tour...

..... and you ‘don’t rate’ a manager who delivered consistent top half finishes in the top division in England for unfashionable clubs - Blackburn, Fulham and Stoke ... laughable, yet you probably didn’t realise his achievements before posting guff ... ?

So like I said, you obviously never rate around 15 top tier managers every season ... they win nothing but try like mad to stay in the division ... I think that you weren’t entirely aware of Mark Hughes’ impressive achievements as a manager when you posted your disparaging remarks about him and you’ve been backtracking ever since ... ????

Over the decades you must have ‘rated’ very few managers then - for the clubs of which Mark Hughes was manager, just staying in the top flight was an achievement - let alone consistently finishing in the top 10 - what would you have thought of a Bristol City manager who delivered three consecutive 9th place finishes in the top tier, as Hughes did at Stoke? You’d have probably been calling for a statue of said boss to be erected outside Ashton Gate - or would you have said ‘Meh, he didn’t actually win anything’ ...

Why didn’t you ever rate him as a manager TIn? He joined Blackburn as their manager, kept them up in the PL when they looked vulnerable and in his first season there he also took them to the FA Cup Semi Final for the first time in 40 years. In his second season as manager at Ewood Park he took Blackburn to a top 6 finish in the premier league. In his third season as Blackburn manager he ensured they finished 10th in the premier league whilst getting to their third consecutive cup semi final under Hughes. In his fourth season as Blackburn manager he finished 7th in the premier league. He then took Fulham to an 8th placed finish in the premier league as their manager. And as Stoke City manager, in his first season he took them to a 9th placed finish in the premier league, their highest league placing since 1975. Hughes then took Stoke City to two consecutive 9th placed premier league finishes followed by a 13th placed finish in his following three seasons as their manager in the top flight. Certainly not the most shabby managerial CV I’ve seen - so, again, why didn’t you ever rate him as a manager?

Great post Coxy - the many critics of Mark Hughes should have a look at the premier league finishing positions he consistently delivered for Fulham and Stoke, but they won’t. They should also realise that when he took over at Saints they looked dead and buried and certainties for relegation from the premier league, but he kept them up. Yet they will overlook that. For Bradford City to appoint Sparky as their new manager is just a great appointment - as you rightly pointed out Coxy ???

2nd - Wales isn’t a PL club ... ?

Have they? They’ve won or drawn 50% of their recent games ...

He won or drew 9 out of 18 games from his appointment until now - seems a bit harsh to sack him - certain Bristol City managers have survived without being sacked with much worse ‘result runs’ - I had a chat with Jamie McAllister at the game last night - I asked him about the Sunderland tenure with LJ - again, he thought their sackings were very harsh - certain clubs need to realise their standings in English football and realign their expectations accordingly ...

Decent comparison - although I think Ayew has only participated in 22 league games and one cup game this season, including sub appearances - not that it matters much

Famara 151 league games 45 goals Famara started 26% of those games on the bench Wells 83 league games 16 goals Wells started 35% of those games on the bench

Conveniently ignored the ‘assists’ stats for both - well played ?

Funnily enough though, Famara Diedhiou had a scoring record for us of 1 goal every 3.3 games and Nahki Wells has a scoring record for us of 1 in goal every 3.3 games that he started - yet some seemed to worship Fammy on here?!

Fair enough, I was just quoting from the media reports at the time that said we paid £5m for Wells - who knows?!

Didn’t we pay £5m for Wells?! Not so much of a bargain then?! ??

That performance and his body language both suggest he thinks he made a big error in going back to West London - Semenyo would play better than him in that team at the moment ...

They’re brave using a blue carpet in Glasgow ... ‘mon the ‘Gers ... ??

Also, he had zero touches in the opposition box, zero aerial duels won, zero defender ‘take ons’, zero shots at goal, zero chances created - in 90+ minutes - obviously a top class striker well worth nearly £100m

Genuine question Robbored, what is ‘young’ in football terms? Reid was 25 when we sold him and Bryan was 24 - does that make them ‘young players’ that we sold? Interesting debate ...

He does look super cool in chinos, I’ll give you that ... ??

Well I do remember a few years back Arsenal, I think it was, being brave enough to declare that with all the premier league tv money etc sloshing around they didn’t actually need fans in the stadium to make loads of dosh - I think they even maligned the fact that because they had to pay Police costs and staff costs for looking after a large crowd, that commitment significantly ate into their profits - so a club actually ‘replacing’ fans may not be as far off or ridiculous as some might think ... I believe managers, coaches and players would fight tooth and nail against that but those billionaire owners upstairs, some with no appreciation of fans’ passion and influence on games, would simply look at balance sheets and run ‘their’ clubs as they see fit ... ??

Raheem Sterling did it 8 days ago - Norwich City 0 Man City 4 ...

Is Borussia Dortmund a one man team then? How does a one man team achieve the sustained success that Dortmund has? They had plenty of other absolute class players on show. And it’s been suggested on here many times that the Scottish Premiership is the equivalent of league one in England - so as it stands that result for Rangers is the equivalent of Wigan Athletic winning 2-4 away at Dortmund. Rangers was only the second team ever to score 4 goals in a European tie away to Dortmund. It was an incredible result which ever way you look at it ...

So what does Dortmund 2 Rangers 4 confirm to you?! [*Scottish Premiership, the SPL doesn’t exist]

I believe they lost 1-3 at home to a team I’ve never heard of - but you dislike Scottish football and consistently say you have no interest in it, so not sure why you’d care?!

Dortmund 2 Rangers 4 - wow, must have been a fluke, eh @Robbored??!!