Hughes Man City Sacking Not a Surprise

Mark Hughes was a sacking waiting to happen. The announcement made on the Manchester City website stated that the team's results were not in line with targets set. Yet Man City are not far off Champions League qualification, so there wasn't a desperate need to act now.

It is often said that football is a results business. But that's true in all professional sports. Its true in business too. CEOs don't get long to prove that they are up to the job. Up to the job - that's an important statement to me.

I don't believe that Mark Hughes was sacked because the team's results had not been up to expectations. I expect he was sacked because the owners didn't believe he was up to the job. He didn't have their complete confidence. I imagine that was true from the beginning. They didn't hire him, and I suggest that their decision not to replac e him immediately was a "let's wait and see" decision rather than "he's absolutlely the right man for the job".

And you know what? If they've taken a good hard look at his plans, his capabilities and - of course - his development needs in the intervening time and they're not convinced that he will deliver what they want, then he has to go. Whether they've really taken such a reasoned and analytical view is my only doubt.

What journalists would have us believe is that a good result in a particular game might have "saved" his job. That's no way to run a football club. You have to accept that you don't always get the outcome that you want, but you have to look at everything that might influence that outcome and ensure that you are doing everything that you can to control what you can.

So let's not kid ourselves. Mark Hughes has been a dead man walking. The only thing that could have saved him would have been if his team had surpassed all expectations, and possibly won the Premier League. But as we saw with Mourinho at Chelsea, even unprecedented success doesn't guarantee job security. Ultimately, Hughes (as a manager) isn't a 'marquee' name, and that's what a mega-rich owners tend to want for their newly acquired football club.

--
Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com