Hypothetical I know but...

[Stanley]

Harry says if we hadn't lost two of our strikers (Zamora and Johnson) to injury then Hughes would probably still be in a job. Granted their injury records weren't great before joining but it was still unlucky to lose both of them; and although Zamora has been out for less time than Johnson, they did have a proven PL goalscoring partnership. Do you therefore think Harry is right about that and Hughes was simply unlucky to lose his two top strikers who would likely have scored him the goals to keep him in a job...or is Harry just being kind to Hughes?

[OneEyedWilly]

BS Hughes had lost the players after the 1st game of the season and the rot had set in.

[SuperHoopNik]

Harry says if we hadn't lost two of our strikers (Zamora and Johnson) to injury then Hughes would probably still be in a job. Granted their injury records weren't great before joining but it was still unlucky to lose both of them; and although Zamora has been out for less time than Johnson, they did have a proven PL goalscoring partnership. Do you therefore think Harry is right about that and Hughes was simply unlucky to lose his two top strikers who would likely have scored him the goals to keep him in a job...or is Harry just being kind to Hughes?

Yes, I feel if they had been fit all season then right now we'd be sitting maybe around 14th/15th with Hughes still in charge. We did have a lot of the ball and did create a lot of chances most games, but due to Zamora and AJ's injuries we didn't score as many goals as we would have liked. This doesn't mean I wanted Hughes to stay, because the players ended up looking demotivated and lost and we desperately needed a change in manager. He may have had good tactics and all that, but that means nothing if the players aren't motivated.

[QPRDave]

Hasn't there been stories of splitting the players into 2 groups during training, NW players and MH's players. I f this is the case i think having a squad full of unhappy players is more our downfall than injuries. I remember reading actually that BZ was refusing to have anything to do with the rest of the squad, so i think he upset too many players.

[Stanley]

Hughes had lost the players after the 1st game of the season

Hughes had lost the dressing room after the very first game...really?

Yes, I feel if they had been fit all season then right now we'd be sitting maybe around 14th/15th with Hughes still in charge. We did have a lot of the ball and did create a lot of chances most games, but due to Zamora and AJ's injuries we didn't score as many goals as we would have liked. This doesn't mean I wanted Hughes to stay, because the players ended up looking demotivated and lost and we desperately needed a change in manager.

...which kind of suggests that rather than the useless manager he was branded as, he was just unlucky in losing key players to injury so early on?

[Stanley]

Hasn't there been stories of splitting the players into 2 groups during training, NW players and MH's players. I f this is the case i think having a squad full of unhappy players is more our downfall than injuries. I remember reading actually that BZ was refusing to have anything to do with the rest of the squad, so i think he upset too many players.

Although that was quite a bit further into the season Dave, once the rot had seemingly already set in...

[Rieger]

Good question but I think with MH we would be looking over our shoulder maybe around 3 pts clear or above on GD or something if full team was fit. With harry we'd probably be in contention for the title.

[Factamondo]

hughes relied on scoring premiership goals with two know injury prone over 30's..............suicidal imho!

[SuperHoopNik]

Hughes had lost the dressing room after the very first game...really?



...which kind of suggests that rather than the useless manager he was branded as, he was just unlucky in losing key players to injury so early on?

I think he was unlucky, but he's not a very good 'man manager' and would have been found out maybe towards the end of the season or next season. So he was unlucky and pretty useless at the same time! aha

[Shania]

Sparky would have had the job if the pair of them had stayed clear of injuries.