He led Blackburn into Europe, saved QPR and Southampton from relegation and he helped to clear the skies for a Blue Moon to rise above Manchester.
But for reasons he couldn't understand, the tide went out fast on Mark Hughes as a Premier League manager and the phone stopped ringing. Or, in his words, his “network ran out of leads.”
So when lowly Bradford City of League Two came calling, Hughes was neither too proud to turn them down – nor too presumptuous that he would work again nearer football's summit than the foothills. 'Sparky' had been out of the game for more than three years until the Bantams offered him a lifeline in February and they have made a promising start in the muck and nettles, currently tucked in the play-off places.
