Saints appoint Mark Hughes
Southampton Football Club can today confirm it has appointed Mark Hughes as its new First Team Manager.
Hughes has agreed a contract with the club until the end of the season and will take training at the club’s Staplewood Campus for the first time on Thursday.
The 54-year-old will bring extensive experience of the Premier League, having managed at Blackburn Rovers, Manchester City, Fulham, Queens Park Rangers and most recently Stoke City, taking charge of almost 450 top-flight matches and achieving eight top-ten finishes in his career to date. The club is confident that this appointment will allow the complete focus of the manager, players and staff to be on the remaining games of this season.
Hughes, who made 60 appearances for the club as a player, will be joined at St Mary’s by Mark Bowen and Eddie Niedzwiecki. They will take the roles of Assistant Manager and Assistant First Team Coach respectively alongside existing First Team Assistant Coach Kelvin Davis, Head of Goalkeeping Dave Watson and Head of Sports Science Alek Gross.
Mark Hughes said: “It's a challenge I'm excited by. It's a great opportunity to come back to a club I know well, and a club I've got real affinity with, and I couldn't turn that down.
"I bring experience of the Premier League. I understand what it takes in this league to win games. But first and foremost I think it's about coming in and maybe being that different voice, that different message from myself and the staff, that will enable the players to recognise and focus on what needs to be done in this key period of the season.
"The objective clearly is to remain in the league and make sure we're a Premier League club next year. That's where this club needs to be, that's where it should be, and that's our intention to make sure it remains there."
https://southamptonfc.com/news/2018-03-14/announcement-mark-hughes-new-southampton-manager
