Manchester City is in a unique position in world football. It has opportunities available to it, because of the cash, that are not open to anyone else.
Therefore, it is ridiculous that people preach 'patience' in the hope that we develop a mediocre manager and in a couple of years might have a team that is capable of doing what Villa are doing this season after having circa £300m spent on it.
Teams like Wigan and Bolton are in a position where they have to develop a manager with talent and that is the best option for them. Taking a risk that the average manager they choose is going to turn out eventually to be a very good one. That is there only option. They cannot attract anyone better.
(PS: in those stakes their selection process must be better than ours. Bruce took over a team going down, in the relegation zone and with minimal spending (at least compared to Hughes) has immediately taken them to form over a year and a bit that is circa top six in it's standard - that's what good managers do when they take over - improve teams - not spend £120m to stand still).
Anyway, we have the opportunity to attract the very best to this club, and that includes management. If Kaka or another to class midfielder, were to agree to come in the summer would we be saying "Actually, although Kaka is great, Fernandes has shown one of two glimpses of potential in the last couple of years, along with a lot of poor performances. Fuck Kaka, we'll stick with patience and develop Gelson."
No we wouldn't.
The same reasoning was given for loads when signing Given to replace Hart. So called progress.
Well, along the same lines, there are probably at least a dozen managers who are far better placed and skilled to take this club forward immediately than Hughes is. Managers who might have at least equaled the impact that a Bruce or a Megson or an Alladyce had on their respective teams in their first season. Yet we should have 'patience' and hope that next season he might be able to do what Gary Megson and Steve Bruce have already managed and get a decent set of results together relative to the money he has spent and players available to him.
I bet he can't believe his luck. The richest club in the world and there's a large amount of people who want to shun the opportunities that offers and use it as his own personal development project - instead of making decisions to make it the very best it can be.
Anyway, as we all know, give a manager 4 seasons and he automatically turns into the next Arsene Wenger. Jeez, give a manager 4 seasons with £120m a season and he'll probably turn into the bastard son of Wenger, Fergie and The Special One.
