Making the case for Mark Hughes

Does Mark Hughes deserve more credit? Patrick Davison sits down with the Stoke manager to get his thoughts and discuss his ambitions…

At the start of this week, I called Stoke’s press officer to see if Mark Hughes would speak to us. The next day he rang back with what seemed like a resounding yes.

“The manager’s up for it,” he said. Not the customary, “Ok, he’ll do it”, this appeared much more promising.

“Sounds like he’s quite enthusiastic about it Fraser,” I replied. Then, from one of the league’s more straight-talking press officers, came the truth: “Not really. I told him we’ve had a request for a contractual interview and he puffed out his cheeks and said, ‘Alright then’.”

Of course, I don’t think any manager jumps for joy when they get asked to do an interview, and even after such an upbeat start to my conversation with his press officer, I wasn’t surprised that he didn’t especially want to do it. But it is a snippet from a conversation that tells us a little bit about why Hughes himself believes he’s not held in higher regard as a manager.

Despite almost 400 largely successful games as a Premier League manager, and a playing career that took him to Bayern Munich and Barcelona, as well as Manchester United, Chelsea and Everton, his name is rarely more than whispered when a ‘top job’ comes available.

Before the interview began, I told him about my conversation with his press officer. It’s amazing how much he feels his reluctance to be in the limelight has held him back

“Maybe it is because I don’t particularly enjoy doing this sort of thing (interviews) and I’m not very good at it,” Hughes says smiling and sounding philosophical rather than bitter.

“My natural personality is towards introversion, everybody is …

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