Mark Hughes - What team will he manage next?

Mark Hughes resigned from Fulham on the 2nd June 2011 after only 11 months at the club citing that "As a young, ambitious manager I wish to move on to further my experiences". An eighth place finish in the English Premier League and qualification to the Europa League via the Fair Play League was overall not a bad finish considering they were 15th at Christmas. Does Hughes think Fulham are not a fashionable enough club unable to sign top players from around the world therefore struggling to gain a top 10 position each year? Is he hankering after the Chelsea job following the dismissal of Carlo Ancelotti?

A former player at Chelsea and a fan's favourite, Hughes will certainly be welcomed by the Stamford Bridge faithful but is this role a poisoned chalice? After all Ancelotti was sacked the season after he had won the first League and Cup double in the club's history. A bit harsh in a lot of people's eyes but Chelsea have turned into the Real Madrid of the English Premier League where if you don't win the league every year you end up losing your job. A more viable option is Aston Villa where Gerrard Houllier has just left due to ill health. Villa have a great infrastructure already in place, fantastic academy, top facilities etc but Chairman Randy Lerner is renowned for being very careful with his spending which is why Martin O'Neil left at the start of last season. Hughes has had the luxury of a blank cheque book when he was at Man City - this will not be the case at Aston Villa and besides, are they that much bigger than Fulham? At least Fulham will be playing in Europe this season.

Maybe Hughes fancies his chances of managing abroad and attempt to emulate the success of previous British managers like Sir Bobby Robson, John Toshack, Terry Venables and to an extent Steve McClaren? During his playing career he turned out for two of Europe's top club sides in Barcelona and Bayern Munich, therefore he may look at opportunities in both Spain and Germany. Having previously managed the Welsh national side for 5 years Hughes gained a wealth of experience on how football is played on the continent - remember he nearly qualified for Euro 2004 only losing out to Russia in the play offs. He has also had experience with dealing with players from all nationalities from his time at Manchester City where most of the dressing room was made up of players from abroad.

I personally think Hughes will bide his time and wait for the right opportunity. He is still relatively young for a manager (47) and can take a year or two sabbatical. Having said that, maybe he is waiting for the Manchester United job when Sir Alex Ferguson goes........you never know!

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