Where Will The 'Ambitious' Mark Hughes End Up Next?

One mystery that’s been left wandering away down a quiet street it seems, is the fact that Mark Hughes after leaving Fulham in the summer hasn’t as of yet gone to manage elsewhere.

When the Manchester United legend left the London club in July a matter of weeks after the season’s end, it was widely expected that the ex-Blackburn and Manchester City manager would take over the reins at Villa Park, succeeding Gerard Houiller.

However Hughes didn’t go to Aston Villa with Alex McLeish getting the position instead. Whether or not Villa’s owner Randy Lerner wanted Hughes or not nobody can be sure of, but what is a certainty is that Hughes wants to go to a club who can match his goals which appear to be the reason why he left Craven Cottage:

"I simply felt my ambition for where I wanted to take the club was not being matched,” He said, “Historically, Fulham were a club who were happy to be in the Premier League and that was their ambition. But it was not my ambition for them.”

“In conversations, they were saying, ‘We know exactly what you’re about Mark but really we are just quite happy to stay in the Premier League’.

As a player Hughes achieved everything bar playing in an International tournament in the game. Having won League championships, FA Cup’s, League Cup’s and European honours as well as building a good reputation so far as a bright young manager, it’s only understandable that Hughes wants to push himself as a manager.

Clearly, he can only do that by making the right choices in his managerial career and despite being linked with Sunderland after his former United team-mate Steve Bruce was sacked this month, you get the feeling that Hughes is holding out for a big job, possibly one abroad if the opportunity arises.

In terms of the Premier League, there’s realistically three clubs where you could see him ending up.

Chelsea wouldn’t be a bad option and Roman Ambramovich would certainly give Hughes the financial clout and seasonal-targets that any manager would love in the game.

However despite being a former player at Stamford Bridge would Hughes take up the job fully with the knowledge that even if he were to enjoy success early on, that his position as manager could still be under scrutiny from Red Rom himself.

Despite Alan Pardew doing well at Newcastle, given the way Mike Ashley has run the club, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the former West Ham boss was sacked if the Magpies went on a bad run.

There is a good base at St James’ Park and certainly the manager who does finally lift a major trophy after 42 years would be ‘immortalised’ up in the North-East. Newcastle is a big club with ambitions and right now wouldn’t be a bad option for an ambitious manager.

Spurs are certainly a team on the up at the moment. They appear to be moving in the right direction and there’s money to be spent at White Hart Lane with the club wanting to get back into the Champions League and push onto win major honours again.

Despite Daniel Levy’s claims that Harry Redknapp won’t take the England job next year, it’s widely believed that the crafty cockney will succeed Fabio Capello and that will leave a vacancy at the London Club, which Hughes would certainly be in the bookies running to fill.

In many aspects Hughes was in the right place at the wrong time for Manchester City and was never really their owner Sheik Mansour’s man to begin with. If Redknapp is to leave Spurs at the end of the season, their chairman Levy will need to make the right choice if the team are to continue to build and possibly challenge for the title in the years to come.

Hughes would be the best person for Spurs. He knows the Premier League well, has a good understanding of how to manage in European competitions and wants to win trophies as a manager. That fits the bill well for Levy who can ill-afford to make the wrong choice and send Spurs back down the table faster than Gareth Bale can dribble with a ball. Pick Sparky Levy.

Adam Dennehey @ADennehey87

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