Hughes only wants top quality
July 26, 2009
CITY boss Mark Hughes does not intend to settle for second best in his bid to sign defenders if moves for John Terry and Joleon Lescott do not come off.
The pair have been on the radar of the Eastlands outfit all summer, with their respective clubs, Chelsea and Everton, already turning down several attempts to land their signatures.
Hughes said he is only interested in bringing in players better than those already at the City of Manchester Stadium.
"We're in the market for good players that we think will improve us," he said. "If we can bring them to the club, then we'll be very delighted.
"But a lot of the good players out there are at good clubs and clubs that don't have to do business with us.
"It's a case of saying what's available, what we can bring to the football club to improve. If the only players that are available are players that won't improve us to any great extent, then we go with what we have.
"Because it doesn't make sense to bring players in that are at a same level, we need to bring players in that are at a better level."
Terry has looked like the prime target of Hughes all summer and asked whether the silence over the issue by the England captain had convinced him even further that the player would be interested in a move, he said: "I have no idea.
"John Terry is a player not at the club, who I keep having to answer questions about. We made a bid for a player that was rejected and that's where we stand at this moment in time.
"Irrespective of what his club does or what John does, we can have no influence on that and that's where we are really."
He continued: "There's been a lot of speculation and debates over a lot of things in connection to Manchester City.
"I've said before, last year expectations were too high for us to fulfil. This year we hope to do better in that respect, we hope to obviously have a squad of players that will compete and do very well.
"Every manager has an expectation on them and I'm no different from any manager in the Premier League or South African football. The pressure is always there to win football matches and we live with that on a daily basis.
"Maybe last year I lived with that more than most, but I'm quite comfortable with that as an expectation. It's something that we deal with quite regularly and it doesn't worry me unduly. It's part and parcel of being a football manager."
