Mark Hughes

Leslie Mark Hughes (born 1 November 1963) is a Welsh football coach and former player who was most recently the head coach of Bradford City.

During his playing career he usually operated as a forward or midfielder.

He had two spells at Manchester United, and also played for Barcelona and Bayern Munich, as well as the English clubs Chelsea, Southampton, Everton and finally Blackburn Rovers.

He made 72 appearances for Wales scoring 16 goals.

He won a host of winners' medals during his playing career, including two Premier League titles, four FA Cups, three League Cups and two UEFA Cup Winners' Cups.

He also collected an FA Cup runners-up medal and a League Cup runners-up medal.

Born in Ruabon, Wrexham, Hughes joined Manchester United after leaving school in the summer of 1980, having been spotted by the team's North Wales talent scout Hugh Roberts.

However, he did not make his first team debut for three years – scoring in a 1–1 draw away to Oxford United in the League Cup, in the 1983–84 season.

When Hughes made his United debut, the club's forward partnership consisted of 27-year-old Irishman Frank Stapleton and 18-year-old Norman Whiteside from Northern Ireland, and breaking up that partnership would not be an easy challenge for Hughes.

But Hughes quickly broke into the first team, partnering Frank Stapleton in attack while Norman Whiteside was switched to midfield to partner Ray Wilkins and stand in for the injury prone Remi Moses.

The departure of Wilkins to Milan at the end of the season saw manager Ron Atkinson decide to stick to using Whiteside in the centre of midfield, enabling Hughes to keep his place in the first team ahead of new signing Alan Brazil, and he was rewarded handsomely as he scored 25 goals in 55 matches across all competitions as United achieved an FA Cup final victory over Everton.

They also finished fourth in the league.

Hughes managed a further 18 goals in the 1985–86 season, where they led until February having won their first ten league matches of the season, before a dismal second half of the season saw them slip into fourth place in the final table.

That season saw him score 17 goals in the Football League First Division – it would remain the highest goals tally in a league season throughout his career.

In the summer of 1986, Hughes was sold to Barcelona for £2 million.

United announced on 21 March 1986 that Hughes would be heading for Spain at the end of the season, but the transfer had been agreed many weeks earlier.

Manager Terry Venables signed Hughes at the same time that he signed Gary Lineker from Everton to form a new strike partnership at the Camp Nou, but Hughes was a disappointment in his only season at Barcelona, scoring only 5 times in 37 games, whereas Lineker proved a success in three seasons at the club, scoring 51 in 138 games.

Alex Ferguson had been keen on re-signing Hughes for United soon after becoming manager in November 1986, but Hughes would have been liable for taxation on money earned playing overseas if he had returned to England before April 1988.

He was subsequently loaned out to West German club Bayern Munich for the 1987–88 season, where he regained his form.

On 11 November 1987, he played two competitive matches in one day, first for Wales against Czechoslovakia in Prague in a Euro 1988 qualifier, and second, after being flown across the border into West Germany, appearing as a substitute for Bayern in their second round cup replay over Borussia Mönchengladbach.

In May 1988, Hughes returned to Manchester United, managed by Sir Alex Ferguson, for a then club record fee of £1.8 million.

As he had done in his first spell at Old Trafford, Hughes proved to be a dynamic goalscorer and was a key player for the club over the next seven years.

In 1988–89, his first season back in England, United disappointed in the league and finished 11th after an erratic season.

They had gone ten league matches without a win in the autumn but then went on a strong run after the turn of the new year to lift them to third place, only for a late season collapse to drag them down to mid-table.

Hughes was the first player to win the PFA Players' Player of the Year award twice, in 1989 and 1991, as well as having been the only person to have scored in the FA Community Shield, League Cup final, and FA Cup final in the same season (1993–94).

Hughes was appointed manager of Wales in 1999 and remained in the role until 2004.

He failed to qualify for a World Cup or European Championship during his five years in charge, although his reign coincided with a marked improvement in results.

He retired from playing in 2002.

Wales came particularly close to securing 2004 European Championship qualification.

Hughes then spent four years in charge of Blackburn, guiding them to sixth place in 2005–06.

He took charge of Manchester City in June 2008 for a year and a half before spending the 2010–11 season at Fulham.

He joined Queens Park Rangers in January 2012, helping them retain their Premier League status in 2011–12.

Despite some high-profile signings in the summer of 2012, QPR began the 2012–13 season in very poor form, and Hughes was dismissed on 23 November 2012.

Hughes was appointed manager of Stoke City on 30 May 2013.

He guided the club to three consecutive ninth-place Premier League finishes in 2013–14, 2014–15 and 2015–16.

Progress at Stoke stalled in the 2016–17 season, with the club finishing 13th in the table.

Hughes was voted PFA Player of the Year, the first Manchester United player to be credited with that award, in its 16th season.

He guided the club to safety at the end of the 2017–18 season, but was dismissed in December 2018 with the club at 18th in the table.

Following a poor start to the 2017–18 season, with the club in the relegation zone heading into the new year, he was dismissed by Stoke on 6 January 2018, hours after an FA Cup third round exit to League Two side Coventry City.

He was appointed manager of Southampton on 14 March 2018, signing a contract until the end of the season, with Southampton one point above his former club Stoke in 17th place at the time of his appointment.