Hughes - Confirmed

[Stud mark of doom]

[oldsarum]

https://southamptonfc.com/news/2018-05-25/mark-hughes-new-contract-southampton-first-team-manager

[Badger]

 

Wonder if anyone has told Les Reed yet.

 

Perhaps its been sealed whilst he's out of the country on holiday.

[eurosaint]

Good news !

[Brumsaint]

Finally! Now let's hope deals for players are sorted in time for pre-season, so everyone knows where they stand.

[Badger]

Finally! Now let's hope deals for players are sorted in time for pre-season, so everyone knows where they stand.

 

Hope Les is kept away from them.

[Micky]

All those other options must have rejected us. Welcome Mark.

 

Sent from my SM-T580 using Tapatalk

[Lighthouse]

Pleased with this. After a couple of failed, risky appointments I'm confident Hughes can get us to at least a solid mid-table finish and have us playing with a bit of purpose again. Whilst it's hardly an awe-inspiring choice, I think we will do better than the last couple of seasons.

[John Boy Saint]

Christ we are half cocked as a club 22:20 on a Friday night to make an announcement, it’s like a government trying to bury bad news when something else is afoot, it’s not as if it’s for the benefit of the Chinese as it’s 05:20 on Saturday morning, and if Guangzhou is anything to go by it’s bloody quiet for a city of 14:5 million people, they’re still in bed!!

 

Still at least it’s done and dusted

[Shroppie]

Christ we are half cocked as a club 22:20 on a Friday night to make an announcement, it’s like a government trying to bury bad news when something else is afoot, it’s not as if it’s for the benefit of the Chinese as it’s 05:20 on Saturday morning, and if Guangzhou is anything to go by it’s bloody quiet for a city of 14:5 million people, they’re still in bed!!

 

Still at least it’s done and dusted

And why exactly does that matter at all?

 

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

[Heisenberg]

Les normally covers his mug all over these signings, but again he's nowhere.

 

This could be heading towards great news

 

Good luck Mark. Hope he's negotiated a decent transfer budget

[davefizzy14]

Great news. Good luck Mark hopefully we can now move onto securing our preferred transfer targets and have a good pre-season.

[9-3]

Will Dave Watson and Kelvin Davis be retained?

[DT]

Kelvin Davis. Good at wearing an earpiece.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[DT]

Timed for when Les is in Kiev watching his true loves?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jamesfp1]

Finally! Now let's hope deals for players are sorted in time for pre-season, so everyone knows where they stand.

Lol

[Plumstead_Saint]

And why exactly does that matter at all?

 

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

Well it's not exactly professional media management, is it?

As OP says it smacks of trying to bury the news, or some kind of panicked PR.

Look at all the manager announcements that have happened this week,

and their timing within the news cycle.

[Badger]

Well it's not exactly professional media management, is it?

As OP says it smacks of trying to bury the news, or some kind of panicked PR.

Look at all the manager announcements that have happened this week,

and their timing within the news cycle.

 

Perhaps Les or someone is hoping no one notices the appointment.

[suewhistle]

Well, that should keep the weekend press interested. They need some fillers apart from the Championship final..

[Saints foreva]

Risky giving him a 3 year deal imo.

[Max]

3 years of Mark Hughes. Bugger.

[Badger]

3 years of Mark Hughes. Bugger.

 

As opposed to 8 months of Pellegrino.

 

Do you think he'll do more than 2 years ? That seems to be a reasonable stint these days.

 

Someone suggested on an earlier thread that the contract mght have a break clause, although be surprised if that was agreed to.

[SNSUN]

We're going to win the league!!!

 

Seriously this was a no-brainer. He fits well, he's passionate, he's more no-nonsense that the last two managers we've had, and he did well in keeping us up when most of us thought we were heading for relegation. We have a manager with balls. Yes, there are questions over his transfer dealings, but he still led Stoke to their 3 highest ever Premier League finishes. Even if we see Hughes as a stepping stone back up the league, it's a decent appointment.

 

Let's hope he's seen where the flaws are in the squad, and doesn't waste any time in bringing in some players to fill the gaps. For me, we need a goalkeeper to challenge McCarthy (unless we can't offload Forster in which case we have to keep him as second choice), we need a right back to replace Pied (if he goes, and maybe even 2 right backs if Cedric departs), a left back to replace the almost definitely departing Bertrand (unless he stays which would be a big surprise), a dominant centre back to bring our first choice centre backs to 5, an attacking midfielder (to replace Boufal, 2 attacking midfielders if I'm being greedy as I feel we're one light already), and a striker, unless we really are going to put our faith in the current crop (and if we do keep faith in the current crop, then I would definitely bring in 2 attacking midfielders.)

 

WOOF, that's a lot of work, but the squad does need some surgery. Good Luck Mark.

 

One Leslie in, now let's get one Leslie out.

[saint1977]

Glad it’s done. Right, now for the task of injecting pace and power into the first XI and offloading quite a few squad players. Should be a busy window, especially if Les has lost this latest battle

[manji]

Christ we are half cocked as a club 22:20 on a Friday night to make an announcement, it’s like a government trying to bury bad news when something else is afoot, it’s not as if it’s for the benefit of the Chinese as it’s 05:20 on Saturday morning, and if Guangzhou is anything to go by it’s bloody quiet for a city of 14:5 million people, they’re still in bed!!

 

Still at least it’s done and dusted

They make announcements at this time to **** the Daily Echo over. They will have already printed tomorrow’s early edition.

[Saint Fan CaM]

Pleased to see the club have taken notice and provided ST holders with a glimmer of an understanding of what they’re buying into. I welcome Hughes appointment and hope he is given the support to sign 3-4 top players that will be vital to the improved season we are all expecting.

[Dry Toast]

Epic. I love this site, never ending belly laughs at the frankly bizarre posts of many. I'm very grateful. To me our MO is clear. We stay in the Premier League and all is well. Hughes for three years, as long as a situation like last season doesn't

 

happen then he will stay. The owner wants to make his money back, with interest (that's how businessmen operate, so I'm lead to believe). Thoughts of winning the league and Champions League domination might be a little way off unless

 

you are unhinged. Top half is what we can hope for in any given year, with the very odd freak of a season thrown in. These musings have been gone over many many times since I've viewed this site, so can only assume it's the MO of

 

football forums to self perpetuate most things. I'm glad I have other hobbies.

[Halo Stickman]

Good news.

 

Hughes, Bowen and Niedzwiecki moulded a decent team from a bunch of dispirited and bewildered players, and brought a bit of pride, passion and purpose back into our performances. Avoiding relegation has saved this club a fortune, prevented redundancies and loss of match day revenue at local businesses. For this alone they deserve a chance at managing us next season; but I believe they're a good fit for us regardless.

[Gingeletiss]

Good news.

 

Hughes, Bowen and Niedzwiecki moulded a decent team from a bunch of dispirited and bewildered players, and brought a bit of pride, passion and purpose back into our performances. Avoiding relegation has saved this club a fortune, prevented redundancies and loss of match day revenue at local businesses. For this alone they deserve a chance at managing us next season; but I believe they're a good fit for us regardless.

 

[Wade Garrett]

Well it's not exactly professional media management, is it?

As OP says it smacks of trying to bury the news, or some kind of panicked PR.

Look at all the manager announcements that have happened this week,

and their timing within the news cycle.

 

But who actually gives a f*ck.

[brmbrm]

Christ we are half cocked as a club 22:20 on a Friday night to make an announcement, it’s like a government trying to bury bad news when something else is afoot, it’s not as if it’s for the benefit of the Chinese as it’s 05:20 on Saturday morning, and if Guangzhou is anything to go by it’s bloody quiet for a city of 14:5 million people, they’re still in bed!!

 

Still at least it’s done and dusted

 

??? Right timing for the Saturday morning papers. Right timing for breakfast TV in Shanghai.

 

Honestly, some people on here. Glad you have no decision making authority over anything. (Except, it seems, brexit for FFS sake...)

[qwertyell]

I was hoping we were dragging things out because we were working on a surprise announcement of someone a bit less underwhelming than Hughes, but it turns out it was just boring old ineptitude.

 

Fingers crossed he can keep us up. I don't see it getting any better than that.

 

This time last year the club pursued Thomas Tuchal. It's been a chastening 12 month journey to simply being happy to survive.

 

Oh well, at least we know now.

 

Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

[Jimmy_D]

https://mobile.twitter.com/SouthamptonFC/status/1000124405953933312

 

Heh. 'Sparky'.

[MarkSFC]

Happy with this even though prior to his appointment at the end of the season I was not impressed or hopeful. However he has displayed passion which was severely lacking in the last two managers, set the team up to play positively and instilled a confidence in a group of players who for whatever reason were completely deflated and seemingly unmotivated to play football. To break the bond and dry and to crush the momentum would of been yet another foolish move by our inept leaders. He may not be the best manager out there or even "avsilable" but he seems to me to be exactly the right manager at the right time for our club and that is the secret. Just like Pardew, Adkins, Poch, and Koeman were also. And not like Puel and MP who were the wrong people at the wrong time, although slightly harsh on a cup final manager he clearly wasn't right for us.

Signing Hughes and his team (they are clearly vital) is really the easy part. What the inept leaders must now do is spend some real money on 3-4 real players to lift everyone and instill a real belief into the players but most importantly the fan base. I do however suspect the player acquisition process to be a long drawn out and frustrating procedure that ultimately ends up underwhelming us!!! Unless of cojrse the best news of the summer happens and LR is got rid of.

[Norm]

Good luck MH. Now clear out the players that simply aren’t good enough. Get a bit of pace up front, sort the defence out, job done.

[wild-saint]

Watch him go get us European football next season and see the comments change to “why didn’t we give him a longer contract etc”.

[EkonOkereke]

Good news, hope that means Bertrand etc will stay and with the right additions we could finish 10th or higher. ??

[SaintDan]

I for one am delighted with the appointment, passion, experience and a big European name. Koeman was a similar appointment when he joined given his ‘steady’ cv as a manager. In a time when Premier League Managers are hard to come by we’ve gone with the man who kept us up as a manager and contributed as a player.

 

My only gripe is that we are no longer appear to be this slick PR machine that Cortese created, but let’s see our overall transfer activity before passing judgement.

[CB Fry]

 

My only gripe is that we are no longer appear to be this slick PR machine that Cortese created, but let’s see our overall transfer activity before passing judgement.

 

Announcing a major signing/appointment late at night to fu ck the Echo over was something that the tiny little Italian did with pretty much every single announcement of his tenure.

[del boy]

Looks like Les is the new scapegoat then, at least thats good news for Tadic and Redmond

[John B]

But who actually gives a f*ck.

 

Could not put it better myself well said

[beatlesaint]

Never wanted Hughes anywhere near Southampton when he managed Stoke BUT as soon as he came in and worked on installing belief in the players and getting them to play a more attacking game he won me over. Hell we even attacked Man City a fair bit which was both surprising and encouraging. The passion he showed was fantastic and I just get the feeling he’s a good fit for Saints and vice versa.

 

To get Stoke to 9th three years running isn’t to be sniffed at, I don’t know what went wrong there and I don’t care. With two or three quality signings we should be looking at that 8/9/10 th spot which after the near disaster of the season just gone will do more than just fine.

[adrian lord]

Excellent. He deserves a proper crack at it.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Toomer]

Good news.

 

Hughes, Bowen and Niedzwiecki moulded a decent team from a bunch of dispirited and bewildered players, and brought a bit of pride, passion and purpose back into our performances. Avoiding relegation has saved this club a fortune, prevented redundancies and loss of match day revenue at local businesses. For this alone they deserve a chance at managing us next season; but I believe they're a good fit for us regardless.

 

Could not have put it better myself got a tune out of Tadic and the players playing as a team with a bit of passion. There a couple of players he needs to convince them to stay and a few to get out and replace, wish him all the the best of luck.

[saint1977]

Never wanted Hughes anywhere near Southampton when he managed Stoke BUT as soon as he came in and worked on installing belief in the players and getting them to play a more attacking game he won me over. Hell we even attacked Man City a fair bit which was both surprising and encouraging. The passion he showed was fantastic and I just get the feeling he’s a good fit for Saints and vice versa.

 

To get Stoke to 9th three years running isn’t to be sniffed at, I don’t know what went wrong there and I don’t care. With two or three quality signings we should be looking at that 8/9/10 th spot which after the near disaster of the season just gone will do more than just fine.

 

I agree with this. I posted on the other thread that I can see a lot parallels with the WGS appointment - football world sceptical but it worked out well. Players got fit, communication was straightforward and you knew WGS’s teams gave you everything they had. Effectively, this is Ronald’s replacement as the manager’s chair has effectively been vacant since, it never felt right with last two managers. I couldn’t identify with them and nor could the fans or seemingly players. Like WGS at Coventry, people only remember your last season but great opportunity for Hughes and the club to prove people not connected to SFC wrong. QPR was a mess for years, Warnock's book makes it plain.

 

Like others, I note the lack of comment from Les, think the owners may have lost patience there and not before time. If he isn’t commenting of any of the transfer articles on the OS over the summer, even better.

[northam soul]

I assume its safe to come on here now and not get hit by flying objects, has the news filtered through to the Austrian alps yet and deepest Nairobi.

[CB Fry]

Still of the belief that we have good players that under a half decent manager will perform well, certainly better than 17th. We now have someone who at least is a half decent manager.

 

I am hoping for and expecting a Hughes renaissance next season and we will be back challenging 7th/8th. And a cup run please.

[Shroppie]

Still of the belief that we have good players that under a half decent manager will perform well, certainly better than 17th. We now have someone who at least is a half decent manager.

 

I am hoping for and expecting a Hughes renaissance next season and we will be back challenging 7th/8th. And a cup run please.

That's my underlying thought. He got way more out of the players in the last eight games than MP had all season.

 

So I might just go with this belief, take a long holiday and look forward to mid-August. [emoji3][emoji3]

 

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

[Baird of the land]

Would have preferred a shorter contract but then i’m Still less than ectastic about Hughes in general.

[Heisenberg]

Hughes has earned his chance and I hope he can deliver better football than we've be subjected to past 2 years.

 

He has a big rebuilding job and the squads quality is probably at its lowest for 4-5 years.

 

Hope he gets backed financially and we start climbing the momentum curve again.