Mark Hughes: Pressure Will Grow..

On the surface Mark Hughes seems to be revelling in the transfer market this summer. It must feel like monopoly money between his fingertips, a kid in a sweet shop.  

Under the surface though he must be quietly contemplating the pressure he will confront. Quite possibly this is the most important six months of his managerial career to date. 

The financial backing that Hughes is being given surpasses anything that has been witnessed in the Premier League. The scale of the re-structuring taking place at City make even the riches of Roman Abramovich seem diminutive.

City Chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak will expect at the very least a top-six finish this season. There will be no hiding place for Hughes, no European obligations both cluttering up the fixture list and tiring his squad, their sole focus will be the Premier League, cups being a bonus. 

Hughes has already laid out a combined £29.5m for Gareth Barry and Roque Santa Cruz this summer and most are expecting further deals before the Premier League reconvenes on the 15th August. 

Murmurings in the press continue to link them to players all across Europe. Samuel Eto’o has appeared more than most and they have flirted with Bayern’s Franck Ribéry. 

John Terry’s loyalty to Chelsea is being put to the test by a dangling carrot worth a reported £250,000–a-week, this though would see him forsake Champions League football in World Cup year.     

These are top profile players. Their current job description is competing in the top echelons of European football. In persuading players to join the Sky-Blue’ revolution, Hughes must include details of the direction the club is travelling. He is almost certainly promising Champions League football a year from now, this may be a guarantee he cannot deliver.

Seemingly the Eto’o deal is dead in the water, but still, with Carlos Tevez having signed a five-year deal and Emmanuel Adebayor apparently on the cusp, there would be eight strikers in the first team squad. Although it does appear many of these strikers currently on the books, already are, or will soon be moving on. 

This points towards a complete overhaul in the final third. Players need time to forge relationships on the field and time may not be in great supply, they will have to gel quickly.

There is little time for sentiment in business, just ask Avram Grant - and football is big business. Khaldoon al-Mubarak will have a strict timeline set out for this business venture. 

With a slight sense of irony, with every new player signing a bumper contract at the City of Manchester, Hughes’ job becomes that much harder. Expectation generates from the terraces and more importantly from those who rule the roost.

Although comparisons between City and Real Madrid are rife this summer, Madrid’s new manager, Manuel Pellegrini, has a stronger foundation to achieve his goals. He is picking up the reigns at a club who finished runners-up in La Liga last term - they are established, consistent title challengers.  

Attracting big names is no challenge, with many European players allegedly holding a torch for Madrid. They also hold a bargaining chip that City so desire, assured Champions League football. 

Pellegrini’s objective is not to break up a seemimgly impenetrable top four from a mid-table platform, but to continue a tussle with Barcelona for the label of ‘top dog’ in Spain. Hughes has to make much bigger strides to satisfy owners who are pumping unfathomable amounts of riches, into Manchester City.

Success in the top third of the Premier League is hard graft, Everton and Aston Villa will support this notion. Teams at the pinnacle of English football have a strong core, developed over seasons. Hughes needs more consistency from his star pupils, Robinho delving into his bag of tricks two weeks out of every eight, won’t suffice.

Hughes has won 42% of his games in charge at City, he has lost as many games as he has won, that ratio has to change with immediate effect. Sven-Göran Eriksson got sacked for mirroring that % statistic. The Swede also achieved City’s joint highest points total prior to his exit, albeit under City’s preceding hierarchy.  

Playing with someone else’s money means you play by their rules. The first four months of this campaign are critical for Hughes, sloppy back-to-back defeats and the pressure intensifies ten fold. Football management is a cut throat environment, just ask Paul Ince and Tony Adams, they attempted it with mere bare essentials.

City must be looking down the table rather than up it. Al Mubarak has already proved he will endeavour to buy, quite literally, ‘any’ player. If City is failing to keep up with the big boys come the cold winter months, then the board might well be buying ‘any’ manager come Christmas.