mancityblues.com

Some say devil, some say Angel, whichever side of the divide you are on, Mark Hughes sticks to his guns, speaks his mind and remains clear on the subject of Manchester City; it is a work in progress that won't catch up to the top teams overnight. The building blocks he is putting in place, he says, will yield results in the next season or two and he is going nowhere.

City has become an easy target for lazy journalists who would sensationalise everything, latch on to the smallest hint of dissent and try to blow it up to crisis point, every bad result a disaster, every mistake on or off the field criticised and blamed on the manager. Too much money, too little experience, on a scale of one-to-ten, popularity wise, Hughes is a minus figure. A mixture of Rasputin, Bin Laden, and Stan Laurel.

He seems unfazed by the UEFA Cup exit, and immediately re-focusses on the league. Harry Redknapp talks about the seventh spot saying Tottenham will be having a go, but man City will be there or thereabouts too, come the end of the season. That's the target, although it depends on other results going our way, Hughes remains determined to get european football next season.

mancityblues member Madame Cholet puts the whole thing into perspective;

"I still flip-flop in the Hughes debate but on the whole I find it difficult to resist the arguments put forward by those who know better than me and whose opinion is that Hughes should go.

Having said that, I was thinking this morning how pleased I am that the ADG have not displayed a knee-jerk reaction and have clearly rejected the views of the British press who would like to see Hughes hung from the yard arm. I don't want people in charge of the club who are led by the nose into making decisions they feel shouldn't be made. I want someone strong and level headed in charge of the club. Whether or not their 'wait and see' policy pays off, I'll always be glad they didn't do something they felt was wrong.

I said some months ago that I thought we would finish in 8th place, I stand by that and I think if Hughes is able to achieve that I should be content"

I agree Madame, entirely.