No class. No intelligence. No credibility. When Khaldoon al-Mubarak became chairman of one of English football's most famous footballing institutions, the feeling was that Manchester City were in good hands. No more.
Until his craven decision to sack Mark Hughes on Saturday, Mubarak had seemed a breath of fresh air after the stench of the Thaksin Shinawatra era. Of course, there was all the nonsense of rushing in Robinho without proper consultation with the manager or consideration over whether the Brazilian had the requisite character. Of course, there was Mubarak's similarly misguided pursuit of Kaka but that was as much down to the naïvety of his excitable chief executive, Garry Cook.
Robinho can be written off as a £32.5 million mistake. Kaka can be put down to experience. But Mubarak's suitability as a fit and proper person to run a football club must now be questioned after his shameful treatment of Hughes. The manager's defenestration will be dressed up as the work of Cook and football administrator Brian Marwood but the final push came from Mubarak.
Logic followed Hughes out of the window. Having promised that the board had a long-term plan involving Hughes, that one of the most widely respected managers in British football would be given time, Mubarak's credibility has also disappeared. The respect has gone.
Typical City: one step forward, two steps back. Hughes should have been given the rest of this season to prove himself. If he fell short, then Mubarak could legitimately have sought a successor; after a World Cup that could have been someone better than Roberto Mancini.
The new man would have had a pre-season and a proper transfer window to impose his ideas. Mancini must hit the ground running but history shows how hard that is.
Mubarak clearly has no understanding of what is happening in the Premier League, a division in a state of flux.
For all the focus on City's draws, Hughes still lost only twice this season, three fewer than Sir Alex Ferguson. Having been challenged to finish in the top six, City were "absolutely on target'' as Hughes reflected yesterday. Now Mubarak believes Mancini can steer the team into the top four. It looks pretty crowded in there.
City's chairman may not realise this but Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea have been building teams for years, strengthening their squads, and will occupy three of the positions. Dear old Rafael Benítez, looking increasingly a ferry short of the full Mersey, clings to the conviction that Liverpool will take one of the Champions League spaces. He even guarantees it.
Martin O'Neill has nurtured Aston Villa's team over recent years, augmenting it intelligently, and they look well placed for the top four. So do Tottenham Hotspur under Harry Redknapp. City's Arabs, so successful in their own sphere, and the man from Nike, Cook, cannot understand that it takes time to come first, even fourth in football. Just do it overnight? No chance.
Nothing should surprise in football, the land that dignity forgot, but there will be many raised eyebrows over the role of Marwood in Hughes's demise. Nobody should really expect Cook or Mubarak to understand football but Marwood does. He has some explaining to do.
The former Arsenal and England winger would know that steady development is the name of the game. City were improving under Hughes.
As the dismissed manager himself rather pointedly observed in his statement, he had guided the team to the "club's first semi-final for 28 years''. If Ferguson continues fielding his reserves, City have an outstanding chance of reaching Wembley.
Everybody could see which players were worth building around, professionals with an appetite for the footballing fray like Shay Given, Craig Bellamy, Gareth Barry, Roque Santa Cruz, Nigel de Jong and Carlos Tévez. Not Robinho, Mubarak's choice.
Hughes made mistakes, particularly in central defence, but he brought in enough good characters, some of whom signalled their anger to Mubarak's board. Mubarak wouldn't listen. No understanding.
