It has been confirmed that Stoke have appointed Mark Hughes as their new manager and he will appear at a press conference at the club’s training headquarters this morning.
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The former QPR boss replaces long term manager of seven years Tony Pulis, who left Stoke last week by mutual consent. Hughes had a tough spell at QPR; he was in charge for 11 months in which he only won 8 out of 34 games, which lead to him being sacked. The Welshman was replaced by Harry Redknapp shortly after.
Hughes will meet with the Stoke chairman Peter Coates and chief executive Tony Scholes at the media gathering at Stokes’ Clayton Wood training base today, in which it is said they will confirm the appointment.
“We had lots of inquiries about the job, including some very interesting names, but we decided Mark Hughes was a fit for us”, said Chairman Peter Coates in a recent interview with the Stoke Sentinel.
“His record speaks for itself. He has done excellently by anyone’s standards. He’s also a thoughtful, intelligent man with an intense desire to win.”
In his playing career Hughes has played for the likes of Manchester United, Barcelona and Bayern Munich and scored over 200 goals.
Hughes managed Wales on a part time bases where he guided them to a World Cup qualifying play off. He started his club managerial career at Blackburn in 2004 which saw him lead Rovers to three successive top 10 finishes before leaving the club in 2008 to take charge at Manchester City.
Despite a heavy period of investment, Hughes was unable to deliver success at City and was sacked in December 2009. A positive stretch at Fulham in 2010-11 saw the London club finish eighth in the Premier League and helped rebuild the Welshman’s reputation.
After just one season in charge at Craven Cottage, Hughes resigned and started his spell at QPR in January 2012, replacing Neil Warnock. Hughes was sacked 11 months later after he was unable to move Rangers away from the bottom of the table despite healthy financial backing in the transfer window.
Stoke City
Following news of the appointment betting-news.co.uk posted a tweet showing one fan who protested by parking his van outside the stadium with a large sign saying ‘Hughes Out!’. The appointment of Mark Hughes may not be popular with fans according the chairman of Stoke City’s supporters club Bryan Shaw.
“From all the people available, he would not have been my first choice, although he has a reasonable record apart from at QPR,” he said.
“If you ask the majority of Stoke supporters, Mark Hughes would not be their first choice. That said, whoever the chairman appoints we have to get behind. We just have to hope he proves us wrong.”