Premier League News: Fulham appoint Mark Hughes as their new Manager
Fulham have filled the vacant post of club manager by appointing the former Manchester City boss, Mark Hughes, on a deal that will see him stay at the club for the next two years.
Fulham finished 12th in the Premier League last season under their previous manager, Roy Hodgson. The season’s highlight though was a place in the Europa League final where they were defeated by Spanish club, Athletico Madrid. On route to the final, Fulham beat some of the biggest clubs in Europe including Juventus, Hamburg and Shakhtar Donetsk.
Despite winning the LMA’s Manager of the Year award for his work at Fulham, Hodgson chose to leave the club when Liverpool came calling which meant Fulham had to look for his successor. After weeks of speculations linking Ajax Coach Martin Jol with the job, it is the former Wales manager, Mark Hughes, who has got the job.
Hughes takes charge of the club with immediate effect, seeing over the friendly game, and the preparations, against Werder Bremen on the 7th of August. Although Hughes recognized the significance of the work done by Hodgson, in particular the achievements in Europe, he has made it clear that he has his own plans for the club and is ready to put them into action as soon as possible.
Hughes previous spells in the Premier League, with Blackburn Rovers and Manchester City, have been successful, despite getting fired from his second job at the City of Manchester Stadium. During his four years at Blackburn Mark Hughes became known for his astute sense in the transfer market and a knack of producing solid performances, especially against the big teams in the Premier League. Guiding relegation threatened clubs, to finishes as high as 6th in the league, despite a limited budget. This earned Hughes the reputation of being one of the best young managers in the league.
In 2008 Hughes left Blackburn for Manchester City, a club with huge resources due to two takeovers in quick succession. First by the Thai Billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra and then by the Abu Dhabi United Investment Group which saw record amounts of transfer funds available to Mark Hughes. Unfortunately for Hughes though, he wasn’t able to meet the demands of the owners in terms of performances on the pitch and after a 10thplace finish in his first season combined with average form in his second, the owners decided to get rid of him and appointed the Italian Roberto Mancini instead.
The Welshman’s appointment at Manchester City was seen as a litmus test to decide whether he was ready to be appointed at a truly big club, with the likes of Chelsea and Manchester United being named as his eventual destination but unfortunately for him he failed to perform as well as he would have liked. Fulham have offered him the opportunity to rebuild his reputation to some extent.
It is clear from the contract he has signed that Fulham is unlikely to be a club Hughes will stay at for an extended period of time but if he manages to achieve something significant with the club, like his predecessor Hodgson, Fulham can be a stepping stone on route to the bigger clubs in Europe for him.
Fulham owner, Mohammad Al Fayed has expressed his confidence in the abilities of Mark Hughes and will be hoping that, at the very least, the club maintains some of the progress made in the last two years and with a few additions to the squad, maybe build on that to improve further.
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