Mark Hughes to be Saints Manager

[channonite]

According to the Echo. They seem to be more accurate with their Saints related news recently, so maybe they have been readmitted to the approved club list of journos?

On their website:

"THE finishing touches of a deal to bring Mark Hughes to Saints on a permanent basis are being completed. The Daily Echo understands Saints are nearly in a position to announce Hughes, who led the club to Premier League safety, as their new manager. It is understood an announcement will be made early this week. The experienced Welshman is said to have finished all talks with the St Mary's hierarchy and it's now only a matter of time before he is revealed."

[Batts]

Sifting through the bullsh*t on the Darkside, it seems Reed came up with another Pellegrino-esque candidate as an alternative, which immediately got thrown out by the board. Which can either be intepreted as him just doing his job in coming up with viable alternatives so the board can get a view on the state of the managerial market, or could be interpreted as Reed's star is waning.

[saintsfan73]

Good (to both Hughes staying and Reed have less unput)!

[thestartledsaint]

May 21, 2018 8:47:20 GMT Batts said:

Sifting through the bullsh*t on the Darkside, it seems Reed came up with another Pellegrino-esque candidate as an alternative, which immediately got thrown out by the board. Which can either be intepreted as him just doing his job in coming up with viable alternatives so the board can get a view on the state of the managerial market, or could be interpreted as Reed's star is waning.

They were talking about this last night on 5 Live, albeit about Arsenal, that clubs are caught between appearing to dither and appearing to not assess the market correctly. 

[Batts]

May 22, 2018 15:24:20 GMT thestartledsaint said:

May 21, 2018 8:47:20 GMT Batts said:

Sifting through the bullsh*t on the Darkside, it seems Reed came up with another Pellegrino-esque candidate as an alternative, which immediately got thrown out by the board. Which can either be intepreted as him just doing his job in coming up with viable alternatives so the board can get a view on the state of the managerial market, or could be interpreted as Reed's star is waning.

They were talking about this last night on 5 Live, albeit about Arsenal, that clubs are caught between appearing to dither and appearing to not assess the market correctly. 

Which has to be the right approach, right? Presumably Hughes isn't fending off offers left, right and centre so it does make sense to take the time to make the right choice. It is probably only us fans getting antsy for an appointment, and frankly we can be patient and lump it. We don't know who else is available, who's interested, how much Hughes is demanding, what unreasonable clauses he is insisting upon, etc. We all know that the club will continue to re-shape the squad with or without a manager, and pre-season and the transfer window is going to be condensed into a tiny window between the WC finishing and August 19th, so we may as well just buckle up, enjoy the World Cup, and see who our manager is on the first day of pre-season.

Mind you, this is all easy for me to say because I remain unconvinced that Hughes is the right guy for us. We may have poo-ed it with Puel and Pellegrino, but I still want us to be a club that actively searches for true innovation in its coaches. I think we're only considering Hughes as a permanent appointment because we're still sh1tting ourselves over how close we came to relegation. If we'd finished with another 6 points last season, we wouldn't be talking about appointing a manager that could 'steady the ship'; we'd be wanting a manager that could push us back up into European contention.

[crazydanny]

May 22, 2018 15:46:46 GMT Batts said:

May 22, 2018 15:24:20 GMT thestartledsaint said:

They were talking about this last night on 5 Live, albeit about Arsenal, that clubs are caught between appearing to dither and appearing to not assess the market correctly. 

Which has to be the right approach, right? Presumably Hughes isn't fending off offers left, right and centre so it does make sense to take the time to make the right choice. It is probably only us fans getting antsy for an appointment, and frankly we can be patient and lump it. We don't know who else is available, who's interested, how much Hughes is demanding, what unreasonable clauses he is insisting upon, etc. We all know that the club will continue to re-shape the squad with or without a manager, and pre-season and the transfer window is going to be condensed into a tiny window between the WC finishing and August 19th, so we may as well just buckle up, enjoy the World Cup, and see who our manager is on the first day of pre-season.

Mind you, this is all easy for me to say because I remain unconvinced that Hughes is the right guy for us. We may have poo-ed it with Puel and Pellegrino, but I still want us to be a club that actively searches for true innovation in its coaches. I think we're only considering Hughes as a permanent appointment because we're still sh1tting ourselves over how close we came to relegation. If we'd finished with another 6 points last season, we wouldn't be talking about appointing a manager that could 'steady the ship'; we'd be wanting a manager that could push us back up into European contention.

The transfer window closes August 9th.