Hughes Clues

With Darren Bent's record move to Spurs confirmed earlier today, and with London on high terrorist alert, the club perhaps concluded today was a good day to 'bury the bad news' that Bryan Hughes is leaving too.

To paraphrase contestants on 'Bullseye', he 'came here for nothing' so Curbishley's punt on him in July 2004 was a low risk proposition, at least compared to the £2m+ signings of Jeffers, Rommedahl and Murphy around the same time.

My memories of him as a Birmingham player were as a tricky winger, but he was typically played as a creative central midfielder, a role in which he was never remotely Premiership class. Indeed, unfair as it might sound, if one accepts that the last three Premiership seasons were our worst, then the presence of Hughes (and others admittedly) throughout, might not have been a mere coincidence.

It wasn't that he did anything particularly 'wrong' during a game, nor lacked for effort as such, but matches simply seemed to pass him by, with the odd goal (particularly in the FA Cup for some reason) never making up for this lack of overall influence. As a rarely-used squad player he would have been adequate, but towards the end of Curbishley's reign particularly, he was offered a regular berth that he wasn't good enough to justify.

Some Charlton fans, misguided in my view, believed he could have done a reasonable job in the Championship and thus perhaps warranted a new deal. However Pardew is clearly keen to stamp his authority on the club, and move it in a different and fresher direction. Holland in; Hughes out.....that's not a decision that many of us would disagree with.