skybluekings
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Get into top six or face sack, Hughes warned
---Found this article when searching to see how many times Hughes has had to get backing because of bad results. Turns out there were MANY, MANY times during the season that Khaldoon had to make a statement...and it seems he may soon have to do so again with the media smelling blood - 10th next week by the looks of things (7th now and a loss to Chelsea plus many easy games for the teams around us). Oh if Thaksin had his way, we would not be where we are today.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/jun/05/manchestercity.blackburn
Mark Hughes is under instructions to supply Thaksin Shinawatra with a minimum top-six finish, and qualification for Europe, at Manchester City if he wants to avoid the same fate as Sven-Goran Eriksson. Hughes, whose appointment was confirmed yesterday, has been left in no doubt that the owner will not tolerate anything but a concerted effort to gatecrash the Premier League's "big four".
Thaksin's refusal to countenance anything less led to Eriksson being paid off after one season and Hughes will be under even more pressure given the amount of money at his disposal this summer. A club-record deal for Jo, the Brazilian striker, has been arranged with CSKA Moscow, at a cost of £18m, and Hughes has identified David Bentley as his next target, with City preparing a bid of about £7m for a player who has only a year remaining on his contract at Hughes' former club, Blackburn Rovers.
In total Thaksin will make about £50m available to Hughes and the Thai's associates are still in advanced talks with Ronaldinho, a proposed deal that has been laughed off all around the world but which is being treated with deadly seriousness in the City boardroom. Hughes will, in effect, have more to spend this summer than any manager bar Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United and whoever chooses to replace Avram Grant at Chelsea.
With that, however, comes a form of pressure that he will rarely have experienced at Blackburn or in his previous job in charge of Wales. Thaksin has shown he is not only wealthy but ruthless and it has been made clear to Hughes that he must deliver a significant return. To put the manager's task in context, City have not finished in the Premier League's top six since its inception and last finished that high in the top flight in 1992.
As a former Manchester United player with an illustrious past at Old Trafford, Hughes has received only a lukewarm welcome from City supporters. He has signed a three-year contract after meeting the club's new executive chairman, Garry Cook, in London on Tuesday night, when it was pressed upon him that the club wanted a quick answer.
By then a compensation package had been agreed with Blackburn but City's concern was that Hughes was holding out in the belief that he was second to Carlo Ancelotti on Peter Kenyon's shortlist at Chelsea. It soon transpired that Roman Abramovich, Chelsea's owner, did not share his chief executive's view and Hughes was able to give Cook the speedy answer that had been requested.
"I am delighted to welcome Mark on board," said Cook. "In our view he is the brightest young manager in the game. He made it clear to us from the moment we met that he shared our vision and ambition to make City one of the top sides in the country."
Cook, previously an executive for Nike, went on to describe Hughes as "always our No1 target" which was being economical with the truth, to say the least, given that Thaksin spent several weeks trying to persuade Portugal's coach, Luiz Felipe Scolari, to accept the job. What cannot be disputed, however, is that Hughes's appointment represents an early success for Cook at the end of an unstable period that is likely to see the club's chief executive, Alistair Mackintosh, move on before the start of next season.
Hughes will be unveiled at a 9.30am news conference today while Blackburn set about bringing in a replacement, with Sam Allardyce, Paul Ince, Steve McClaren and Gordon Strachan in contention.
Blackburn's chairman, John Williams, said of Hughes: "He leaves the club in a strong position with three consecutive top-10 finishes and an excellent squad. In turn, we have helped Mark to establish himself as one of the most sought-after young British managers in the business, having previously had no club management experience. We wish him well. We would have liked him to stay but he made it clear he wanted a fresh challenge."
---Found this article when searching to see how many times Hughes has had to get backing because of bad results. Turns out there were MANY, MANY times during the season that Khaldoon had to make a statement...and it seems he may soon have to do so again with the media smelling blood - 10th next week by the looks of things (7th now and a loss to Chelsea plus many easy games for the teams around us). Oh if Thaksin had his way, we would not be where we are today.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/jun/05/manchestercity.blackburn
Mark Hughes is under instructions to supply Thaksin Shinawatra with a minimum top-six finish, and qualification for Europe, at Manchester City if he wants to avoid the same fate as Sven-Goran Eriksson. Hughes, whose appointment was confirmed yesterday, has been left in no doubt that the owner will not tolerate anything but a concerted effort to gatecrash the Premier League's "big four".
Thaksin's refusal to countenance anything less led to Eriksson being paid off after one season and Hughes will be under even more pressure given the amount of money at his disposal this summer. A club-record deal for Jo, the Brazilian striker, has been arranged with CSKA Moscow, at a cost of £18m, and Hughes has identified David Bentley as his next target, with City preparing a bid of about £7m for a player who has only a year remaining on his contract at Hughes' former club, Blackburn Rovers.
In total Thaksin will make about £50m available to Hughes and the Thai's associates are still in advanced talks with Ronaldinho, a proposed deal that has been laughed off all around the world but which is being treated with deadly seriousness in the City boardroom. Hughes will, in effect, have more to spend this summer than any manager bar Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United and whoever chooses to replace Avram Grant at Chelsea.
With that, however, comes a form of pressure that he will rarely have experienced at Blackburn or in his previous job in charge of Wales. Thaksin has shown he is not only wealthy but ruthless and it has been made clear to Hughes that he must deliver a significant return. To put the manager's task in context, City have not finished in the Premier League's top six since its inception and last finished that high in the top flight in 1992.
As a former Manchester United player with an illustrious past at Old Trafford, Hughes has received only a lukewarm welcome from City supporters. He has signed a three-year contract after meeting the club's new executive chairman, Garry Cook, in London on Tuesday night, when it was pressed upon him that the club wanted a quick answer.
By then a compensation package had been agreed with Blackburn but City's concern was that Hughes was holding out in the belief that he was second to Carlo Ancelotti on Peter Kenyon's shortlist at Chelsea. It soon transpired that Roman Abramovich, Chelsea's owner, did not share his chief executive's view and Hughes was able to give Cook the speedy answer that had been requested.
"I am delighted to welcome Mark on board," said Cook. "In our view he is the brightest young manager in the game. He made it clear to us from the moment we met that he shared our vision and ambition to make City one of the top sides in the country."
Cook, previously an executive for Nike, went on to describe Hughes as "always our No1 target" which was being economical with the truth, to say the least, given that Thaksin spent several weeks trying to persuade Portugal's coach, Luiz Felipe Scolari, to accept the job. What cannot be disputed, however, is that Hughes's appointment represents an early success for Cook at the end of an unstable period that is likely to see the club's chief executive, Alistair Mackintosh, move on before the start of next season.
Hughes will be unveiled at a 9.30am news conference today while Blackburn set about bringing in a replacement, with Sam Allardyce, Paul Ince, Steve McClaren and Gordon Strachan in contention.
Blackburn's chairman, John Williams, said of Hughes: "He leaves the club in a strong position with three consecutive top-10 finishes and an excellent squad. In turn, we have helped Mark to establish himself as one of the most sought-after young British managers in the business, having previously had no club management experience. We wish him well. We would have liked him to stay but he made it clear he wanted a fresh challenge."