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Rudolph Hucker

Great Managerial Comebacks.

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I have said previously that the best outcome would be for Hughton to succeed. But surely there has to be a point of no return for a manager?

I believed that point was the Cardiff home game, win or go.

Like politicians, most managerial careers end in failure. The Ferguson is a rare creature while a significant number move elsewhere, sometime promoted to their level of incompetence. It has to be a key element of management to know when time is up and act.

Not acting can be traumatic. Nigel Worthington is a perfect case. This genial man only left once vitriol turned really nasty and dimmed his place in Club history. I would go further and say Norwich City has all too often delayed tough decisions to it''s detriment and this is where McNally proved to be the right man.

McNally appears to lack ''soft skills'' but his bullish style complements the character of the rest of the board. As we drift along at present one wonders what he is doing?

Grant made up the Club''s mind for them, he could see what they refused to. In the case of others we all know the realisation things were irrecoverable came a long time, a crucial time, before the Club acted. When Hughton goes the post mortem will reveal a malaise that began a long way back and a string of missed opportunities which many, many people realised at the time but got shot down for pointing out.

If Hughton turns things round now it will be the greatest comeback since Lazarus. But has anyone ever come back from a position and record like his? I suspect some have but I can''t think of any. History tells us he has lost it and the clock is ticking, perhaps it''s already too late?

Other than when we came back to beat Everton at home last season I have not seen our players fluid! confident and comfortable in their play. Hughton is trying to impose a method and it doesn''t work.

It is a characteristic of leaders that they cannot change after a point, even to save themselves, it is like a gamblers habit, to capitulate is to say you got it wrong and at that point you take ownership of the losses. I expect Hughton to show this typical trait of the drowning man. My worry is, his employer and backer, David McNally might also be too consumed to be at his objective best. Was he the same over Lambert''s departure?

As the Chinese say.....the last thing to see the sea is the fish.

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The great SAF came back from the brink himself, Mark Robins goal in the cup saved him a job.

Moyes nearly got Everton relegated, a last minute winner on the last day of the season kept them up.

Brendan Rodgers guided liverpool to a lowly 7th last year after spunking nearly £100m on England B players.

Now it looks good for him there.

Usually though, once the rot sets in, there''s no coming back.

I genuinely believe though, if we can win 2 of our next three, this bad run will all be forgotten about and Hughton will have saved his job for the time being. Such fine margins. Imagine Snoddy had let RVW have tha penalty or we''d taken one of the 31 chances versus Cardiff?

We''d be about 14th now and thinking of top 10.

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Usual excellent, well thought out stuff from Rudi.

I''m particularly interested in your middle paragraph (those who pointed failings ou got shot down...)

Of course there were those who, for whatever reason , opposed Hughton''s appointment from the start. To me that stance was just as ridiculous as that of the apologists who, even now ,are lamely trying to talk the Hughton regime up. Evidence iof the malaise you speak of has been stacking up for months, but thse people seem to be very adept at ignoring what''s in front of them. But of course you come across these sort of people in all walks of life?

There are those who now say that the buck stops with Mc Nally for appointing Hughton in the first place, but that seems grossly unfair. On the face of it Hughton was a decent appointment, but through whatever reason, it''s just not worked out.

It seems that the majority on this board have been prepared to cut the Hughton administration some slack, but we are really down to the bare bones as regards those numbers now.

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I hope i''m not seen as pro or anti Hughton at the moment.

On the back of 11th last season, even with the poor run in, i was pro Hughton, I do think he deserves the West Ham game to save his job though.

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The great SAF came back from the brink himself, Mark Robins goal in the cup saved him a job.

Actually if it''s the Oldham cup semi, it was Mark Hughes!

Don''t see RVW or Hooper or Elmander, particularly not Becchio, doing that for CH somehow !

You have to actually score to record such a star, lol!

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Either way he''ll get the Wet Spam game.  Then we''ll take it from there, because there''s a break.
In the mean time we all have to not worry about it for a week.

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Wasn''t it our own, our very own, Mike Walker who kept Everton up by the skin of their proverbials in 1994?

 

Mind you, Moyes nearly went down with them in the 2003/04 season, they lost their last four league games and avoided relegation by just three points.

 

Brendan Rogers has to be up there as a "comeback Manager" -he won 2 out of 10 at Watford and was in relegation trouble with them in Jan 09 but go them to mid-table. Went to Reading, had a poor run there in the first half of 09/10 (5 wins in their first 20 fixtures) and was subsequently sacked.

 

Form then at Watford and Reading suggested nothing special but he got it together at Swansea and now look at him. Sometimes the man isn''t right for the club, sometimes its the other way around, sometimes a Manager/Coach was got that star quality, it just doesn''t always come about straight away. Michael Appleton is another who has had a dodgy start to his managerial career yet, if he looks at Rodgers, there''s no reason he couldn''t be at a top 6 club in two-three years time either.

 

If club and Manager can light the blue touch paper between them-as we did with Lambert-then the possibilities are endless. Unfortunately it is very much the exception rather than the rule, the rule being where we are now-underachieving and struggling, as will, always a hardcore of about 10 clubs in the Prem and 10 in the Championship, a "Premier League II" if ever there was one.

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*Meant those ten or so that always stuggle in the Prem are doing so to stay there whilst the ten in the Champs are struggling to get in/back there just so they can then struggle to stay there!

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[quote user="KeelansGlove"]Seriously ?

I cannot think of anyone on this board whose spectacles are quite as rosy as yours Jimmy[/quote]

Unfair. There are at least 3 I can think of whose tinted specs make Jimmy''s like the ones Roy Orbison used to wear !

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[quote user="Old Shuck"]

Wasn''t it our own, our very own, Mike Walker who kept Everton up by the skin of their proverbials in 1994?

 

Mind you, Moyes nearly went down with them in the 2003/04 season, they lost their last four league games and avoided relegation by just three points.

 

Brendan Rogers has to be up there as a "comeback Manager" -he won 2 out of 10 at Watford and was in relegation trouble with them in Jan 09 but go them to mid-table. Went to Reading, had a poor run there in the first half of 09/10 (5 wins in their first 20 fixtures) and was subsequently sacked.

 

Form then at Watford and Reading suggested nothing special but he got it together at Swansea and now look at him. Sometimes the man isn''t right for the club, sometimes its the other way around, sometimes a Manager/Coach was got that star quality, it just doesn''t always come about straight away. Michael Appleton is another who has had a dodgy start to his managerial career yet, if he looks at Rodgers, there''s no reason he couldn''t be at a top 6 club in two-three years time either.

 

If club and Manager can light the blue touch paper between them-as we did with Lambert-then the possibilities are endless. Unfortunately it is very much the exception rather than the rule, the rule being where we are now-underachieving and struggling, as will, always a hardcore of about 10 clubs in the Prem and 10 in the Championship, a "Premier League II" if ever there was one.

[/quote]
I would see Rodgers as having learnt his coaching skills as a very young man at Chelsea. At both Watford and Reading he was still very young and his man management skills were probably still immature. As you say he then became the complete package at Swansea. 

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Believe me, i''m not averse to what''s happening. I have said since the weekend (other than at about half four when i not only wanted Hughton sacked, i wanted him beheaded and wanted his head brought to me on a plate). After a few drinks to calm me down on Saturday (slash sunday morning) I have realised he should be given West Ham or bust.

I even tweeted Bradley Johnson and told him he''d played pathetic and after praising him versus Southampton for seemingly learning to pass, it all went wrong again.

I also think Elmander is useless but at the end of the day, as bad as it seems, we are just 3 points of 12th still and very much in a race for survival so it''s imprtant we get a grip, forget about Man City and concentrate on getting a stuffy 1-0 against West Ham, where aimless crosses to 1 man up front clearly won''t work.

I believe Hughton will come out fighting and his battle for his job is not lost yet.

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