Mark Hughes became the new Southampton manager on Wednesday night.
Was anybody surprised>
Well, no.
As we have become used to, a select group of failing Premier League managers don’t disappear, they just collect their payout and wait for the next set of PL mugs to take them on.
No such thing as an original idea? Well there certainly isn’t much original thinking when it comes down to Premier League clubs looking for a new manager to bring something different to the table.
Earlier this week on The Mag, I saw an interesting article that showed which clubs had sacked their managers this season.
Turns out that apart from the current top seven in the Premier League, every manager had been sacked apart from Eddie Howe at Bournemouth and the three promoted bosses (Wagner, Benitez and Hughton).
Amongst those then asked to replace them: Allardyce, Hodgson, Moyes, Pardew and now Hughes.
Those names might seem familiar…
Again earlier this week, the Telegraph picked up on an interesting set of stats, in anticipation of Mark Hughes getting the Southampton gig.
They identified 6 managers who keep on getting employed by the same 10 Premier League (past and present) clubs, with the half dozen bosses now having picked up 24 jobs at these 10 clubs in the past 10 years.
On getting the Southampton job, Mark Hughes declared: ‘I bring experience of the Premier League’, yes – experience of getting sacked!
Here is the roll of honour:
Blackburn: Allardyce, Hughes
Crystal Palace: Allardyce, Hodgson, Pardew, Pulis
Everton: Allardyce, Moyes
Fulham: Hodgson, Hughes
Newcastle United: Allardyce, Pardew
Southampton: Hughes, Pardew
Stoke: Hughes, Pulis
Sunderland: Allardyce, Moyes
West Brom: Hodgson, Pardew, Pulis
West Ham: Allardyce, Moyes, Pardew
As for the lucky recipients of the jobs at these 10 clubs, the current scores are:
6 Sam Allardyce
4 Mark Hughes
3 David Moyes, Tony Pulis, Roy Hodgson
Just look at that, Fat Sam with his nose in the trough at 6 of these clubs and Pardew only one behind.
Mark Hughes on taking the Southampton job:
“It’s a challenge I’m excited by.
“It’s a great opportunity to come back to a club I know well, and a club I’ve got real affinity with, and I couldn’t turn that down.
“I bring experience of the Premier League.
“I understand what it takes in this league to win games.
“But first and foremost I think it’s about coming in and maybe being that different voice, that different message from myself and the staff, that will enable the players to recognise and focus on what needs to be done in this key period of the season.
“The objective clearly is to remain in the league and make sure we’re a Premier League club next year.
“That’s where this club needs to be, that’s where it should be, and that’s our intention to make sure it remains there.”
