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Mark Hughes
Mark Hughes’s side have lost 10 of their 18 Premier League matches this term. Photograph: Lee Smith/Action Images via Reuters
Mark Hughes’s side have lost 10 of their 18 Premier League matches this term. Photograph: Lee Smith/Action Images via Reuters

Mark Hughes warns Stoke that sacking him may not change club’s fortunes

This article is more than 6 years old
Stoke manager under pressure before West Brom visit on Saturday
Defeat and poor performance would likely end Hughes’s tenure

Mark Hughes has warned that sacking him will not necessarily improve Stoke City’s fortunes. The club’s hierarchy continue to assess the manager’s future and a home defeat coupled with another underwhelming performance against West Bromwich Albion on Saturday would likely lead to Hughes being unemployed at Christmas.

Stoke, 16th in the Premier League and one point above the relegation zone, have won one of their past eight matches. David Moyes, who replaced Slaven Bilic at West Ham United last month, led his team to a 3-0 win over Stoke last Saturday but Hughes has dismissed the boost a new manager would have on his struggling side. “Initially, you get a manager bounce but usually when you look at the stats it doesn’t make a great difference,” he said.

“Do you bring someone from the outside who doesn’t know the group, the frailties, the limitations, the strengths? Or do you continue with the guy that has worked with them solidly for a good period and knows what they are able to achieve? I know what my view on that is.”

Hughes insists he is the man to turn things around at the club, and Stoke’s board retain the belief that the Welshman, appointed four years ago, is capable of guiding the team up the Premier League, while acknowledging that a run of poor results cannot be allowed to continue.

“We are not where we expected to be, we all acknowledge that,” the 54-year-old added. “I would be more concerned if I felt the side didn’t have the capability to put points on the board. I know this group better than anybody else and I know we have got the capability of picking up points. Before the West Ham game, like-for-like results we were ahead.

“We are a good Premier League team and a great Premier League club, and have been for a long time. That’s how we expect it to remain.”

There is a sense of underachievement but senior figures at the club also have some sympathy for Hughes because of the poor decisions that have gone against Stoke in recent weeks, including the penalty Manuel Lanzini controversially won for West Ham. Lanzini was subsequently given a two-match ban for diving.

“We’ve been hurt by refereeing decisions of late,” Hughes said. “Key moments in key games have been affected by decisions the referee has made. The lad has got sanctioned for diving, rightly, but the only group that haven’t had the benefit of that are ourselves.

“That needs to change, the referees need to step up and get decisions right. It doesn’t seem that it’s correct. It may change with video referees coming in. Maybe that’s something to be applauded that they realise there’s a problem and are trying to do something about it. Maybe because the offence was against us he shouldn’t be allowed to play against us in the return game.”

Second-bottom West Brom, who could welcome back wingers Matt Phillips and Nacer Chadli, badly need a result too, having failed to win in their past 17 matches in all competitions.

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