Keane and Hughes – The New Elite
Redville
Although the Everton - Blackburn game was a typically painful affair to watch, it again illustrated the truly remarkable job that Mark Hughes is doing at Ewood.
In an era when footballers are more mercenary than ever, it’s no small task to entice top players to unfashionable Blackburn, regardless of the money that continues to ooze out of the Premiership.
But a mere glance at the team sheet for this game would suggest that Sparky has an uncanny eye for a really good player. If the capture and subsequent success of Benni McCarthy wasn’t enough, the resourceful Hughes has cemented his credentials with the signing of Roque Santa Cruz. Whilst the top clubs can’t give their money away to find their next hitman, Hughes has bought a striker who, at £3.5m, is going to be the buy of the season.
Similarly, Roy Keane has increased the status of a whole club, 3-fold, in a solitary year. If ever there was an example to bolster the argument that the personality of the manager is reflected in his team, this is it.
Under Mick McCarthy, Sunderland were depressed and hopeless, but Keane has brought a belief to the club which has thrust them back into the big time an ice-age ahead of schedule. It’s worth noting once more that when Roy Keane took over Sunderland last season they were next to bottom of the Championship. Even the annoyingly accurate bookies would never have forecast what was to happen next. Sunderland were not only promoted, they won the league. And you just know that Keano would have been livid had they finished second.
Sunderland will undoubtedly struggle this season but Keane’s achievements are at least commensurate to Hughes’. To be a top manager you need to tick three boxes. You need to engender discipline, you need to be tactically acute and you need to have a supreme eye for how a prospective new signing will adapt to, and benefit, your team.
Many young bosses, like Moyes and Bruce, tick two and succeed to an extent, but to win the top trophies and get the elite jobs, you need all three. Whilst you can teach some of these skills, others are innate. Keane and Hughes have instinctive managerial abilities, twinned with the strategic perfectionism and drive needed to be the amongst the top three coaches in European football.
There was a time when John Gregory was heralded as the answer to England’s eternal problems. Graeme Souness was once regarded as a quality manager. But whilst the stock of Premiership managers seems to fluctuate wildly by the month, it is as certain as day meets night that Keane and Hughes will be managing the best clubs in England, and consequently Europe, within the next 5 years.
