Who is to blame for this year's mess: Poll?

[Ginger Ninja]

You can blame all of the above in one way or another. If you carefully analyse it though I only come up with one answer. Mark Hughes.

Briatore creates a media frenzy about the way he interfered in team affairs and the lack of money he gave the previous managers. They also, rightly, bang on about how many managers he hired and fired in a short space of time and how this hindered our promotion chances over a period of 3/4 seasons. So the media and Briatore are to blame for the past and for planting a seed for the new owners to know how NOT to run the club under the new regime.

Fernandes comes in and is completely different in his approach to the way he deals with everyone. He's immediately friendly, enthusiastic & genuine. He doesn't want to make the same mistakes as Briatore and Ecclestone and you can bet your bottom dollar Amit had plenty of horror stories to tell Tony as well. So he sticks with Warnock as we kick off our Premier League 2011/12 season and decides to bring in Hughes when Warnock's results and perhaps "motivation only" skills seem a little better suited to the Championship. It's a gamble but it just about pays off for that season. He backs his man and Hughes buys the wrong players. No centre backs meaning Hill and Nelsen play every game, ageing money grabbers and a lack of plan B, let alone plan A means he fails. He sticks with his man for too long but having fired Warnock 11/12 months earlier doesn't want to look like another Briatore. Harry comes in, gambles on a goal scorer and a decent CB that was clear for all to see we needed back in August and we go down anyway.

Who's fault was it for bringing in ageing money grabbers? Hughes
Who's fault was it for not bringing in any centre backs? Hughes
Who's fault was it for not bringing in a good goal scorer? Hughes
Who's fault was it hiring a manager without any character? Fernandes
Who's fault was it that Tony stuck with Hughes too long? Briatore
Who convinced the board the days of Vine and Aygemang would be long gone and players he would bring in on long contracts would be worth it? Hughes and Rigg

Who's to blame? Hughes.

Great post mate. Can't disagree with any of it.

[Jeffro]

Hughes - He gave the premiership a 17 game headstart

[silvercue]

You can blame all of the above in one way or another. If you carefully analyse it though I only come up with one answer. Mark Hughes.

Briatore creates a media frenzy about the way he interfered in team affairs and the lack of money he gave the previous managers. They also, rightly, bang on about how many managers he hired and fired in a short space of time and how this hindered our promotion chances over a period of 3/4 seasons. So the media and Briatore are to blame for the past and for planting a seed for the new owners to know how NOT to run the club under the new regime.

Fernandes comes in and is completely different in his approach to the way he deals with everyone. He's immediately friendly, enthusiastic & genuine. He doesn't want to make the same mistakes as Briatore and Ecclestone and you can bet your bottom dollar Amit had plenty of horror stories to tell Tony as well. So he sticks with Warnock as we kick off our Premier League 2011/12 season and decides to bring in Hughes when Warnock's results and perhaps "motivation only" skills seem a little better suited to the Championship. It's a gamble but it just about pays off for that season. He backs his man and Hughes buys the wrong players. No centre backs meaning Hill and Nelsen play every game, ageing money grabbers and a lack of plan B, let alone plan A means he fails. He sticks with his man for too long but having fired Warnock 11/12 months earlier doesn't want to look like another Briatore. Harry comes in, gambles on a goal scorer and a decent CB that was clear for all to see we needed back in August and we go down anyway.

Who's fault was it for bringing in ageing money grabbers? Hughes
Who's fault was it for not bringing in any centre backs? Hughes
Who's fault was it for not bringing in a good goal scorer? Hughes
Who's fault was it hiring a manager without any character? Fernandes
Who's fault was it that Tony stuck with Hughes too long? Briatore
Who convinced the board the days of Vine and Aygemang would be long gone and players he would bring in on long contracts would be worth it? Hughes and Rigg

Who's to blame? Hughes.

You have articulated your reasoning, which is more than some do, but I respectfully disagree with your logic.

I think TF is escaping blame for two reasons 1. Money has come into the club and 2. He is seen as a nice guy.

Fault lies at the top for me, for all the reasons I put in my response.

[Olly]

How many GOOD players were going to come to a bottom club is more the question

[1973 ranger]

Mark Hughes along with Mike Rigg who's job it was to create a profile of the player that we were signing. The one missing part to all of the pre season signing is none of them have any backbone for when the going gets tough. Hughes left us with Cisse, Zamora and Johnson as or only fit strikers and therein lies our biggest mistake this season. You only have to look to see that Remy is our joint top scorer and yet played around 10 games.

[QPR Richard]

How people can blame anyone other than those running the club is beyond me.

Just because TF is a nice guy and some people are putting money in and they are good in OTHER businesses does not mean they are doing well. They are failing totally and utterly. They have turned the biggest asset a club needs now, money, into a negative force. They set the devisive wages, not the managers ...oh and they choose the managers and ultimately kept MH way too long (TF choice).

Just becuase TF is a nice guy and uses Twitter does not mean he has a clue about running a football club. A rival to the one he supports at that.

Blaming MH is ridiculous as his activity was sanctioned by the board.

Blaming Harry is ridiculous as he didn't have much to work with.

Sure - lots of people have contributed to our downfall, including MH and HR and the players, but TF and the Board have to take responsibility.

I don't want them to leave, but I sure want them to LEARN.

Yep, blame the board for not scoring enough goals, poor defensive play, bad tactics, awful team selections, terrible training sessions, **** team bonding........