As ably tracked by our kid Georger and others in the comments of today’s Bootroom, Mark Hughes has been given the heave ho by Man City’s Sheik Your Booty. Sky and Guardian are now confirming that Sparky has been fired, with an official announcement coming at 2:30 EST. Roberto Mancini will take charge and will immediately have a fun time convincing Robinho not to leave the club.
Statement from the official club site:
Manchester City FC can confirm that it has today terminated the contract of Mark Hughes.
In giving reason for the termination Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak said:
“Prior to the current season beginning, with significant investment in players and infrastructure in place, the consensus between the Board and coaching staff was that appropriate agreed targets should be set for the 2009/2010 season.
“The targets were agreed as a result of the player acquisition strategy of the club being radically accelerated in the summer as a result of very favourable conditions for any buying club. It was also based on the fact that the infrastructure of the club had been overhauled completely at great cost in order to create the best possible environment for the team.
“A return of two wins in 11 Premier League games is clearly not in line with the targets that were agreed and set. Sheikh Mansour and the Board felt that there was no evidence that the situation would fundamentally change. This is a particularly difficult announcement given the personal investment over the past 15 months on all sides and we would like to put on record our respect for and thanks to Mark Hughes and we wish him the best in his future career.”
Manchester City Football Club can confirm the appointment, with immediate effect on a permanent contract, of Roberto Mancini and are also pleased to announce that Brian Kidd will join Roberto as assistant manager.
Commenting on the appointment, Khaldoon Al Mubarak said: “Roberto is a hugely experienced manager with a proven track record of winning trophies and championships. His experience and track record speak for themselves. What is absolutely clear is that Roberto believes in Manchester City’s potential to achieve at the highest level and importantly in his own ability to make this happen. My hope is that our incredible fans will join us in welcoming Roberto to the football club.”
Mark Bowen, Eddie Niedzwiecki, Kevin Hitchcock and Glyn Hodges have also left the Club and further appointments will be announced in due course.
Thanks for that, Ryan!
Big miss on the title….The Spark is Out
Apparently Toure told the players that Hughes got the sack. No one in management addressed the club. Classy
Nooo!!! Not Eddie Niedzwiecki too! He’s too good to be collateral damage!
So, assuming Jose Mourinho’s constant bickering with the Italian media and his boss at Inter leads him to leave/be pushed in the summer, this would make Liverpool the only team likely needing a new manager. If rumours about key members of the team losing confidence in Rafa are true, then the Yanks (or new “investors”) will have to make a change and cough up the money to do so.
what are yah gonna do? i would be frustrated as well if i spent 200 million and felt a great opportunity to crack the top 4 were being wasted by an unproven manager. the quicker this was done the better.
I mean there’s two components to this: 1. Should he have been fired? And 2. How well was the firing handled?
For me, 1 is an unquestioned yes, with the talent he’s assembled winning 2 matches out of 11 is unacceptable. 2, however is a different matter entirely. If you want him gone, fire him Wednesday night, or Friday at the least, the whole situation was kind of bungled by the Sheik. I think it could’ve been handled much much better
Yes but at the same time, I would fire Hughes the SPLIT SECOND I realized he wasn’t the future of the club. No matter what day of the week it was. Why wait another day? Mancini has work to do, the top four is wide open!
City’s hand was tipped when all the press reports came out about approaching Hiddink. Agree that it was badly handled and those stories should’ve never hit the papers, but once they did City either had to commit to Sparky or fire him.
Right, me too. I’m just saying, I think that point came on Wednesday night or Thursday, or even before then. Why let him twist in the wind out there today? Plus if it’s really true about having Toure tell the players, that’s just silly.
Translation to that release: “We thought we could tell Hughes to buy the most expensive players, and we’d win the title straightaway.”
It’s tough to separate the truth from lies on this, but Sky is now reporting that Mancini was hired two weeks ago, before the Arsenal Carling Cup game.
I think Keith is hitting close to the mark.
Quick, Throw Sparky etc…
Yeah. You have to figure they didn’t intend for this to get out on a saturday morning. but once it did, you might as well put him out of his misery.
I loved Roberto in Son of the Pink Panther.
I’m sure he’ll do just as well here.
No pressure.