Sacking of Hughes is ‘ridiculous’ says Bruce

Dec 20 2009 by James Hunter, Sunday Sun

STEVE BRUCE says Manchester City’s decision to sack boss Mark Hughes was ‘ridiculous’ - but admitted such news no longer surprised him.

Hughes was given the bullet despite City beating Sunderland 4-3 at Eastlands.

Bruce said: “Am I surprised? I don’t think any of us are surprised any more.

“It is just ridiculous and if we are not careful we are not going to encourage any young coach to take up management - what is the point?

“The one thing we all need is a little bit of time. If you look at the statistics, I think the average length of time a manager is given in the Championship is 18 months.

“I think the Premier League is slightly better because there are managers like Sir Alex Ferguson, David Moyes and Arsene Wenger are all in there and they have been around a long time.”

While Hughes’ sacking dominated the headlines, Bruce was left fuming with referee Andre Marriner’s performance.

Marriner – who controversially sent off Sunderland’s Kenwyne Jones against West Ham in October – awarded City a soft penalty, which gave them their second goal, and then sent off defender Michael Turner in injury-time for what seemed an accidental elbow on Gareth Barry.

Bruce added: “I am disappointed for Mark, really disappointed for him, but not as disappointed as I was with the referee’s performance!

“I wrote to Premier League referee’s chief Keith Hackett six weeks ago complaining about Andre Marriner’s decision to send off Jones against West Ham, when he pushed Herita Ilunga and the lad made a meal of it.

“Then I saw Marriner show Pascal Chimbonda a yellow card a week later when he swung a punch at someone.