Marko Arnautovic has denied his goal celebration was aimed at Southampton manager Mark Hughes who once managed him at Stoke.
Arnie told reporters ‘I respect Mark Hughes and what he’s done for me, but I heard some things when he was talking about me and they were not good things, I don’t care what he says – I perform on the pitch and I try to let my feet do the talking.
‘Of course I’m grateful what he did for me at Stoke when he was my coach, but if he wants to say bad things about me, that’s up to him,’
Arnie appeared to mouth something to Hughes just moments before half-time but Moyes said: ‘I had a word with Marko, I just wanted him to get a hat-trick if he could. ‘I just wanted him to keep at it. Get the third goal and make sure you don’t do anything (wrong), just do your job.
‘If he’s got any problems (with Hughes) then we weren’t thinking about them, that’s for sure.’
Hughes, asked about Arnautovic’s reaction, said: ‘I’ve been told about this but I wasn’t aware he was shouting anything.’
Whatever Arnautovic claims after the event, his first reaction, quite understandably, was to poke his middle finger, figuratively speaking, up at Mark Hughes.
Why not? Mr Hughes, like Mr Moyes, is one of those old school Brit manager bruisers. Mr Moyes, however, shows humility, and Dan of his or not, respect is warranted for how he conducts himself with dignity. This is another way in which he is not so different to Slaven Bilic. On the whole though, Hughes has a seemingly provocative and spiteful ‘****ehawk’ personality.
By contrast, Mr Moyes has learned to concede defeat with dignity, and yes, he’s had a lot of practice in order to get this right, but he is measured for the most part. Which is why I haver ‘understood’ his condemnation of Masuaku’s spitting in the heat of the moment as ‘despicable’, while saying virtually nothing condemnatory about Tony Henry’s alleged comments.
Hughes and Mr Moyes are among a group of ‘old hack’ British managers (not coaches in the Continental sense), an Antediluvian breed where novel, progressive coaching ideas are not to be found: Bruce, Pardew, Warnock, McCarthy, Dyche, Lambert, Allardyce, Rogers, Pulis, Hughes and, our very own, Mr Moyes. They form a rump of ‘die hards’. Guns for hire (readily available having been offloaded by a club) who move from ailing to failing club doing their ‘stop gap’, managerial crap’ retrieval work, often taking a team down a league, and to be entirely fair, sometimes bringing a club back up to the PL. Though never taking them on to genuine success that is sustainable. Like a footballer’s league of gentlemen, or a run-down ‘fraternity’ of footballing Arthur Daley’s this coterie circulate like farts in a sealed spacesuit. Dyche would be a contradiction for this season, I’d concede. But history indicates that Burnley could be fighting relegation next season after a very good current season. Howe and Hughton have shown promise, in fits and starts, if not yet delivery.
Arnautovic is a talented player. Always has been though doubts about consistency and effort at Stoke gave rise to a dubious rep. Right now he’s doing exceptional things for us, like Declan Rice. Whatever Arnautovic now claims or says, we all know the truth.
Come on, he would have relished his goals, and relished kicking Hughes in his managerial nuts.