Mark Hughes and Manchester City have their work cut out for them in the 2009/10 English Premier League campaign.  Soccer 365’s Andrew Rogers takes a look at the side and whether Hughes will be able to get the results his employer will demand.

by Andrew Rogers

The English Premier League’s narrative moves along at an astonishing pace, barely a day goes by without the league producing surprise, elation and despair even in the off season.  However, it’s unlikely an eyebrow will be raised if Manchester City manager Mark Hughes is ejected from the Eastlands hot seat by Christmas. 

Since Abu Dhabi United Group took over Manchester City the Lancashire club has dominated the football media agenda in the UK.  Their dominance is a reflection on their spending power rather than ability on the field, but given the hegemony of the Big Four, represents a promising start to their super club ambitions.

A.D.U.G’ on field investment started by breaking the UK transfer record to sign Robinho, and continued unabated through the January window and current transfer period.

Over the New Year this column was critical of City’s naivety when wooing Kaka, but since then they have signed some excellent players.

Adding Gareth Barry to the midfield gives the club some credibility as a potential top six club, the England starter has put in strong performances against the biggest side’s in the country, and has an excellent range of passes.

Signings Nigel de Jong and Vincent Kompany add steel and intelligence to the midfield, while Stephen Ireland continues to be one of the league’s outstanding creative prospects.

Given the plethora of forwards at the club the likelihood is Mark Hughes will play a 4-3-3 formation, meaning one of the aforementioned names along with Elano, Martin Petrov, Shaun Wright-Phillips, will spend a lot of time on the bench.

The situation in midfield is more positive for potential starters than it is for some of Hughes’ galaxy of strikers. Having splashed $130 million on Roque Santa Cruz, Carlos Tevez and Emmanuel Adebayor, the likes of Craig Bellamy, Felipe Caicedo, and Benjani no longer have a serious future at the club.

This in itself represents the normal circumstances most stars face at Chelsea through to Real Madrid, but for the blue half of Manchester represents a near perfect storm for journalists.

A team of unsatisfied mercenary superstars, at a smaller club with an unproven manager bankrolled by trillionaires can only equal one thing…the sack for Mark Hughes.

The current circumstances at City are similar to Chelsea when Roman Abramovich was patronizing Claudio Ranieri. The Italian had little say in the club transfers and was not the glamorous head coach his owner desired.

Mark Hughes is in the same situation, and will do well to get to Christmas. The natural progression for the club will be to secure a Europa League position, but this is unlikely to satiate his Arabian paymasters.

Most managers will have little sympathy with Hughes plight, but the fact is he has an enormous task ahead of him. It will only take a couple of poor performances at home, or an early exit in the cup competitions, and he will be feeling the heat.

Clearly this is not entirely fair on Hughes, Tottenham Hotspurs were bottom of the league in November 2008, and came within two points of Europa League qualification, but the situation for Hughes is that he will get little latitude for poor performance irrespective of any potential long term outcomes.

With or without latest transfer target John Terry, City should compete for a Europa Cup position. Their defense of Shay Given, Richard Dunne, Micah Richards, Michael Bridge and Pablo Zabaleta is very strong, but without the Chelsea talisman the side has little experience in top four league campaigns.

Shaun Wright-Phillips and Michael Bridge saw little time in the Chelsea line up, and Carlos Tevez was not essential to Sir Alex Ferguson’s requirements.

Mark Hughes is expected to mould an attack heavy squad, handle the reserve roster, and take the club into area of the league they have not reached in over 30 years.

Mark Hughes is held in the highest regard in European soccer, and has the character to manage the situation he is in, but a lot of his squad are not in Manchester to realise their boyhood ambitions of pulling on the light blue jersey.

With charismatic figures like Jose Mourinho continuing to profess their love of the English game, and with a squad of mercenaries, Hughes will be praying his stars don’t let him down when the winter program starts against the likes of Bolton and Burnley away.

HAVE YOUR SAY…
Will Hughes make it to Christmas and beyond with Manchester City?  What does he need to do to keep his players and more importantly his employer happy?  Send your emails to Soccer 365 by CLICKING HERE.

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Andrew Rogers is a regular contributor to Soccer 365. He also writes for ESPN Soccernet and The Sun and can be reached at andrewrogers@optonline.net