former manchester city manager mark hughes is a wronged man

As I begin to pen the penultimate newsletter of the year, I can’t help looking back on what has been a crazy year for football.

The sacking of Mark Hughes over the weekend brought the madness of football to a deafening crescendo – or the game to a sickening low.

It has to be noted that while the rest of the world inhales deeply on the pipe of austerity, football at the top level continues to be unable to see through the thick cloud of hot air it has created for itself.

In England last year we saw the first cracks in the financial strength of a once great football nation as Leeds teetered on the brink.

This year has been worse: Southampton were inches away from oblivion, and then recently Watford teetered – all victims of promotion and then relegation from the Premier League.

Now the gap between the haves and have nots is reaching into those clubs who have sold their soul to the Premier League and its promise of vast wealth.

Portsmouth still teeter, as do Hull City: both unable to guarantee an Administration-free end to the season.

At the top it is a house of cards. The rumours of Chelsea’s future persist, while Liverpool, Arsenal and Man Utd are all saddled with barely manageable debt.
Which makes Man City’s new owner’s impatience all the more absurd. They have the money and, under Mark Hughes, stability for the first time in almost a generation.

And they’ve gone and thrown it all to the four winds.
Shame on them.

The three clubs all the above Premier League sides should take a good hard look at are Aston Villa, Birmingham and Fulham.

Each has to be applauded in the way they have promoted the need for stability and steady progress over this headlong gamble into the unknown.

Even Tottenham and, to a lesser extent Wigan, are beginning to see that the path to long-term success lies in patience.

The most bizarre aspect of the quick thrill attitude of many clubs is that it has been almost entirely derided by true fans of the game, who understand that football – like their own lives – is better run on a realistic rail.

Ask any Man City fan, for example, who they would prefer to see week in, week out playing in the Sky Blue – Stephen Ireland, who Mark Hughes fought tooth and nail to keep at the club last year, or Robinho, a lazy sod who cares little and exerts himself less.

Ireland will win that battle every day of the week because fans need heroes they can identify with.

My wish for next year is for the fans to get their wish.

If one of the big clubs fails: we could well see a sea-change in British football.
And it’s not beyond the realms of possibility.

Merry Christmas everyone!

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