Mark Hughes ends his three-year absence from the dugout after taking charge at struggling Bradford City… but endures a difficult start in League Two after the Bantams are swept aside by Mansfield
- Mark Hughes was appointed as Bradford’s new manager earlier this week
- It is his first management job since he left Southampton in December 2018
- He got off to a disappointing start as his side lost at home to Mansfield
There were reminders all along for Mark Hughes that his return to management would be taking him to a very different kind of place.
His email application to League Two Bradford City was initially lost in the chief executive’s spam folder and every time he leapt to his feet from the dug-out on Saturday, it was into a narrow channel of sand, not a manicured technical area.
The last players he faced as a manager, three years ago, included Manchester United’s Paul Pogba and Marcus Rashford. Here, it was Nigel Clough’s Farrend Rawson and Ryan Stirk.
Mark Hughes made a losing return to management after three years away from the dugout
The last time Hughes was a manager, he came up against Paul Pogba and Marcus Rashford
Hughes looks a little older. The silver hair is a little longer. The challenge facing him at a club which has sacked seven managers in the past four seasons is, at the age of 58, to pick up his career with players who are well short of elite. He’s neither managed nor played outside the top flight, bar a brief spell in the second tier for Blackburn Rovers.
And then there is the expectation he has brought to this proud but careworn club. The huge numbers who attend — 16,797 , more than some Championship games — yearn for the…
Source : dailymail
