It is amazing how blind some Premier League chairmen can be. Look at QPR for example, had they been smart when sacking Hughes, they could have taken Laurent Blanc or even Unai Emery (who had just left Spartak Moscow at the time) yet they went for a dinosaur in Redknapp who to the surprise of no one kept them where they are and took no blame for it whatsoever.
Now you got Stoke, a team that was criticized for not evolving since their promotion to the Premier League five years ago, they sack their manager for that same reason, yet hire a man, who has an appalling record with teams who has got some cash like Stoke, even more, has proved that he'd jump at the first chance he'd get to go to somewhere else to prolong his career as evident when he left Fulham to join Aston Villa, something that turned Villa off signing him in the first place.
They could go for Di Matteo, Blanc or Felix Magath, all on a free, yet they go for someone like Mark fucking Hughes as their manager. Southampton didn't do too badly when signing a manager from La Liga you know.