Mark Hughes joins Bradford: When Joey Barton challenged him to a fight at QPR

After more than three years out of the game, former Manchester City, Blackburn and Stoke boss Mark Hughes is back in football after being appointed manager of League Two outfit Bradford City.

Far from the bright lights of the Premier League, 58-year-old Hughes will be hoping that his no-nonsense style of management can help propel the 15th-placed Bantams up the table in England’s fourth-tier, starting with the visit of Mansfield on Saturday afternoon.

The Welshman’s approach to management isn’t for everybody, though, and certainly didn’t go down well with Joey Barton, who played under Hughes at Queens Park Rangers during a reign that lasted barely 10 months.

“I don’t like Mark Hughes. I don’t think he is a good manager,” Barton told talkSPORT in 2018.

“His tenure at QPR was, let’s be honest, abysmal. For me, he’s a really, really, really poor manager.

“That’s my experience of him. He has his fanboys like [Robbie] Savage – who he’s pals with – but, to me, his record doesn’t stack up.

“I struggled with Mark because he’s just got no people skills,”

Barton then went on to savage Hughes’ record as a boss.

Given that Hughes had been sacked by Manchester City, QPR and Stoke before arriving at Southampton in March 2018, Barton was incredulous that the former Manchester United striker had been given an opportunity at St. Mary’s

“It’s unbelievable that he’s got the Southampton job. It shows how poor the managerial pool is.

“Football management is one of the few jobs where you can be absolutely c**p and get paid a lot of money for being c**p because you get sacked.”

As harsh as that might sound, Barton was pretty much bang on the money when it came to Hughes’ prospects at Southampton. He was relieved of his duties in December 2018