So, by that token, he should be commended wrt Ings, Armstrong (and potentially Gunn), no? I’m not defending Hughes, I’m saying be objective with the criticism.
Hughes made it very clear in an interview a couple of weeks back that he had nothing to do with the summer signings. Now whether he was being completely truthful about that we don’t know. We do know however that Reed got sacked and not Hughes so you can read into that what you will.
I didn’t see any fitness issues out there today. We were the better and stronger team and running hard right till the end. The manager can’t influence the concentration of the players. That’s their responsibility. And he didn’t sign any of the CB’s either. Let’s critique Hughes by all means but let’s be objective about it.
Yes, maybe it was harsh but the trend was there. His 18 month pursuit of McCann, who turned out to one of our worst signings, was an indication that his judgement was in question. We won only one of his last 8 games with us before departing with his Harry Redknappesque excuse of a bad hip. His heart wasn’t in it and it showed in the teams performances. The decline continued and we finished 12th although Sturrock was a big part of that.