it really rams it home how poor hughes was managing our club!!!

[pauldrayton]

I think Hughes' biggest error was the building of the squad in the summer. That was an opportunity to make sure we weren't going to be relegation candidates again but he messed up badly.

He never addressed the defence and left us with limited options up front but too many midfield players. Whilst I don't think they are actually bad signings, I do wonder whether Park, Cesar & Granero were really necessary when we had decent players in their positions and lacked quality elsewhere. Smacked of names for names sake to me rather than an attempt to really build a squad with quality in all the right areas.

[Factamondo]

I think Hughes' biggest error was the building of the squad in the summer. That was an opportunity to make sure we weren't going to be relegation candidates again but he messed up badly.

He never addressed the defence and left us with limited options up front but too many midfield players. Whilst I don't think they are actually bad signings, I do wonder whether he, Cesar & Granero were really necessary when we had decent players in their positions and lacked quality elsewhere. Smacked of names for names sake to me rather than an attempt to really build a squad with quality in all the right areas.

good points.....and the signings of two known crocked ageing strikers was paramount to disaster!

[pauldrayton]

Indeed. 'He' is Park by the way - now changed!

[zeberdee]

What does that make mike rigg then? this man was supposed to have a database of thousands of players around the world with all their background and habits.

what did we get to show for it? a man who is one tile short of a roof (diakite) clapped out old banger (park) a ***** that refuses to sit on the subs bench(bosingwa) aj johnston (cripple) as for granero you dont need some fancy database to know he is good.

how much blame would people attribute to rigg?

my opinion is that this guy is a con man. and is as much to blame as hughes or anyone else. im sure he had some influance with all the signings coming in

Anybody who talks about databases should be banned for consideration for any big job in football full stop. A good experienced football man (Moyes/Ferguson/Allardyce etc) can tell more from 5 minutes watching a player than any database.

[OneEyedWilly]

I think Hughes' biggest error was the building of the squad in the summer. That was an opportunity to make sure we weren't going to be relegation candidates again but he messed up badly.

He never addressed the defence and left us with limited options up front but too many midfield players. Whilst I don't think they are actually bad signings, I do wonder whether Park, Cesar & Granero were really necessary when we had decent players in their positions and lacked quality elsewhere. Smacked of names for names sake to me rather than an attempt to really build a squad with quality in all the right areas.

He signed Johnson and M'bia to try and strengthen other areas which shows him up even more as a tw@t of a manager.