Buzzin Football Blog

I was very surprised to read several morning newspapers had adamantly expressed that Manchester City were about to play their last game under the management of Mark Hughes on Saturday. But the  pre-match build up on both Radio 5 Live and Sky Sports Soccer Saturday appeared to underline that this was indeed the case.

Manchester City won the game 4-3 against Sunderland in another exciting goalfest.  But on the final whistle Mark Hughes appeared subdued, and after congratulating each of his players he applauded the crowd and gave them telling goodbye wave.

Surprisingly, Mark Hughes claimed on Sunday that he had not been told until after the match that was to get the sack and be replaced with immediate effect by Roberto Mancini, who had been in the crowd at Eastlands.

Mark Hughes went on to say it was agreed at a pre-season meeting with the Manchester City owner, Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Mansour, that  a top six finish or 70 points was a realistic target for the 2009/10 season. After Saturday’s win Manchester City was in sixth place and on target to reach 70 points this season.

Furthermore, they had only lost two games all season. One to a last minute injury time winner against the current Premier League champions Manchester United (4-3) and last week to an inform Tottenham Hotspur (3-0), the best record in the Premier League Chelsea have already lost three games, Manchester United have lost five games, Arsenal have lost three games and Liverpool a whopping seven games – none of which have sacked their manager, yet!

They are also in semi-final of the League Cup.  Manchester City’s first semi-final for 28 years!

The fact that Manchester City, not necessarily Mark Hughes, have spent £200 million of Sheikh Mansour’s money is apparently enough to sack a perfectly good young manager who I believe this season would have finished with a trophy and a very real possibility of guaranteed Champions League football next season, which in turn would have opened the door for some of the biggest names in world football to choose the blue half of Manchester over the red devils.

Too many draws and not enough wins was of course Mark Hughes’ problem. This I believe was caused by too many top quality attacking options and not a strong enough defence.

Panic buying led to inflated transfer fees for Jolean Lescott and Kolo Toure when the lure of money failed to capture John Terry’s signature in the summer.  And to rub salt into wounds, former captain Richard Dunne, who was hounded out of the club by someone, is having a great season for Aston Villa.

Whether Mancini will continue to look for proven players in the Premier League or use his Italian connections to bolster a very weak defence we will see in the coming January transfer window.

Certain players definitely appear to have been bought on the request of Mark Hughes.  Rocky Santa Cruz followed him from Blackburn Rovers and Craig Bellamy who had always been admired by Hughes since his days as manager of Wales I would be confident in saying had Mark Hughes stamp of approval.  But remember how both Hughes and Robinho looked dumbstruck the night  he was signed from Real Madrid?

Fitting then that in what appeared to be a final stand, Mark Hughes left Robinho and Emmanuel Adebeyor on the subs bench on Saturday and Rocky Santa Cruz and Craig Bellamy both had a great game and scored three of Manchester City’s four goals.

Roberto Mancini has managed Fiorentina and Inter Milan, where he won three successive Italian League titles and two Italian Cups, before being dismissed in May 2008 and replaced by Jose Mourinho.

Mancini definitely has the right pedigree to take Manchester City to the next level, and with the astute appointment of Brian Kidd as first team coach maybe Manchester City are looking to emulate the successful Anglo-Italian  partnership of Jose Mourinho and Steve Clarke at Chelsea. But with several players – Rocky Santa Cruz, Craig Bellamy, Shay Given, Gareth Barry, Kolo Toure, Nigel De Jong, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Stephen Ireland – already stating how unhappy they are with the sacking of Mark Hughes, Mancini faces a baptism of fire as he prepares to take over the reigns for three games in quick succession, starting with an awkward game against Stoke City on Boxing Day.

At the beginning of the season I wanted Manchester City to break into the top four but now there’s a part of me that wants them to finish mid-table and get thrashed by Manchester United in the forthcoming League Cup semi-final!