lythamblue wrote:King Kev wrote:[ You say that our owners have changed against thier original statements and principals, what do you mean by this? Have you got any evidence?
Read previous statements from Cookie and Khaldoon and re listen to the Interviews.
"Mark has our full backing and will be here for a long time etc"
"we know what we are trying to do is difficult but we are patient and here for the long term etc"
"We don't expect success imediately and have full confidence in our management team"
It just goes on and on ..... and now we look daft for believing it.
As the OP said, what else is PR and what can we actually believe now.
I will take the rest of your comments with a pinch of salt as you know me by now and are too old to get upset on a messageboard.
Well Hughes did have their full backing. To achieve success he needed his team around him, a no excuses culture and proven premiership players to make an immediate impact. ADUG catered for pretty much everything Hughes wanted. In return Hughes had to provide top 4 football or at the very least make a decent attempt at it. For what its worth I don't think leaking 3 goals a game for the past 3 games or 4 away wins in one and a half seasons or that disorganised shambles interspersed with moments of brillance, which has been the feature of this season, was the way forward. Its been entertaining and maddeningly frustrating in equal measure but outside of a cup or two was never going to worry the big boys at home or abroad.
It is difficult and they will be patient if they can see tangible progress. Now you may disagree with them as to what constitutes tangible progress but as its their half a billion and counting you can disagree all you want. Again I agree with their decision.
They don't expect success immediately but they do expect to be challenging for the PL title in a year or two. I would refer you to Mancini comments re a title bid :) They may have had full confidence in the management team, the fact they backed him financially would suggest this to be true. However they can also lose confidence in the management team and 16 months and £200million + on player purchases later they clearly did. This does not make them dishonest or disingenuous. It does make them practical people who reassess performances over a period of time. The key factor though was January and where ADUG going to give more money to someone they had lost confidence in. Hughes was reported as saying he needed to get players with better 'character' in and this time 'he would do his homework on them' etc. At this point anyone with any sense is going to wonder that after an influx of players over three windows could we not have perhaps done this in the first place? This season was turning into a rerun of last season with players underperforming and rumours circulating that yet again 'by chance' the players not performing were not (gasp) Hughes players. The old expression 'fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me' was never more apt.
Being here for the long term and trying to reflect City within the community is not incompatible with assessing the core business and deciding that a key member of staff is not up to the task. Additionally I find it hard to begrudge Sheikh Mansour making what is his
first mangerial appointment. It is worth mentioning that in 16 months and half a billion spent on City Sheikh Mansour is only now deciding to put his own man in place. Judging by press and other reaction you would have thought he is changing managers every other month. Yet this is his first appointment and having made it he is now someone not to be trusted?
I was a Hughes outer from the day ADUG took over. I didn't think Hughes was up to the task. It was my opinion but I never pressed for Hughes to be sacked mid season as it made sense for him to see last season out and then replace him in the summer. ADUG though had different ideas so fair enough. Not once did I question ADUG's policy on this given they were closer to the situation then me. Sure I bitched about Hughes pretty much all the time. I was even begining to bore myself on the subject but if Hughes was the price for ADUG's ownership then it was price worth paying plus I figured they would see the light eventually :)
I guess then if those who didn't want Hughes sacked or who didn't like the way it was done (lessons to be learnt yes but don't apologise for getting your man lined up first) will just have to suck it up. Whats done is done and no it doesn't reflect on the owners integrity no matter what you read in the Sun.
