Plenty of talk today that Mark Hughes left Fulham because we were ambitious enough for him (see here and here).
But, as Football 365 point out, it’s worth looking at what he’s said since being in charge at Craven Cottage.
Mark Hughes, yesterday:
As a young, ambitious manager I wish to move on to further my experiences. I believe my management team and I have done a good job and the club has a strong foundation from which they can go forward […] I hope the supporters and all those connected with the club will understand I wish to move on to further my experiences.
30 April:
I’m hoping to sit down with the club and talk about my future…I want to stay because I like this club. I think it’s run well with good people and we can be successful. What we have achieved since Christmas gives me encouragement for the whole of next season. We’ve got good quality players here and, like most clubs, we’ll try to add to that quality in the summer. If we can I feel confident that the next few years will be very successful.
11 May:
I’m very happy at Craven Cottage and am looking forward enormously to building on what we have achieved this season. I enjoy a good relationship with the owner, management, players and supporters of Fulham Football Club and look forward to continuing that relationship next season.
23 May:
When you have all I have in place here, you don’t give it up lightly. There’ll be speculation about my future because, if a manager does reasonably well, you get talked about in glowing terms. But from my point of view, I’m very happy here and it is not my intention to look elsewhere.
When Hughes was harshly sacked by Manchester City, the LMA put a statement of support and backed him to the hilt. They’ve been very quiet over the last 24 hours.
