Hughes is a victim of being employed by a previous regime. Why should the Sheikh give him time to prove he's not up to the job if that's what he thinks of him? It's his massive investment which is at risk. It's his money that would be used to buy new players. If he doesn't think the manager is good enough then he is more than entitled to bring his own man in.

I don't think Mancini was the right guy to bring in. I still think City need somebody to come in and control the ego's, build the foundations then a coach like Mancini would be better to bring in. I don't think City will be able to get straight to the next level, it does take time and with the strength of other sides in the league, it'll be very hard to jump straight into the top 4. A manager like Hiddink, Capello or Mourinho, somebody who will tighten up the defence, sort out the attitude and get them playing for eachother. I think I made this point in the summer. I think Real Madrid are in a similar position, too, I can see them getting Mourinho next year.

It's a bit harsh to compare Mancini's record with Hughes. While he won a couple of cups before taking the Inter job, he essentially managed the equivalent of a Man U or Chelsea while his major rivals were imploding due to the match-fixing scandals and having titles taken off them and handed to Inter and points deductions.

Hughes hasn't managed an equivalent club. Mancini might well be better than Hughes but I don't see it as the major jump the City Board might be expecting.

Good to see the myth about citys owners being your normal football club owners and not wanting instant success being blown apart by yesterdays events. Oh and thanks for taking all the media attention away from Utd's abysmal performance at Fulham as well.

On the flip side, it's nice to see they do want to sit back and watch hism squander another £100 million as he would surely have done. The evidence was there for all bar the most pig-headed that he just didn't have what it takes to take us to the next level. It's not instant success we want but some sign that we are moving in the right direction at a decent pace. There was little sign of this for me. If we'd carried on progressing at this rate, then we would be achieving our goals in about 2050. Only the complete and utter ineptitude of Liverpool has saved us from being as far away from the top four as what we were under Sven, just two years ago, before Hughes spent £250 million.

The media will always have it in for us due to the way we are trying to build a team. They don't like it, fans of other clubs don't like but we'll get used to it. I don't think United fans lose much sleep about nobody liking them.

Fourth spot has never been so there for the taking and our shambolic defence over the last few games have cost us dear. A lot of people forget that in those ten games, when we won one, decent sides would have expected to win eight or nine of them. It was the easiest run of fixtures we could possibly have hoped to have been given.

I just wonder, one day, whether Hughes will look back and see Kolo Toure as being largely responsible for his downfall? He bestowed the title of captain upon him and he has let him down in every area including leadership, command of his defence and not least his comical defending.

Couple that with the signing of Lescott and the transformation of what has been one of our best ever defences (in a sh[ii[/it team too) to one of our worst, for the large sums spent and you probably have the key to his downfall.

In my book, the sale of Dunne and the pig-headed insistance on keeping the partnership of Toure and Lescott together, to justify his expenditure, has certainly been the major factor.

However, the strange substitutions, the inability to motivate the big guns such as Robinho and Adebayor and the tactical naivety have all played their part.

Stability is wonderful but you need the right man. The owners clearly saw that Hughes was not going to be the man to take us into the big time. As for Mancini, well, that's another story and I will reserve judgement for a later date.

I think a lot of City fans have spent so long in the doldrums that they see anything in the top half and a few cup wins against mediocre sides as the best thing that's ever happened and all is well. We've never had this kind of money before and neither has anyone else.

The past has gone and it is not against what happened to us in the past that we should be measuring ourselves against. It's other clubs of similar stature. The fact is Villa and Spurs look much better 'teams' and have spent only a fraction of the money, despite starting from a reasonably level playing field with us.

I dont really buy the "not the new owner's man" argument. If that were the case the Sheikh would have sacked him at the end of last season. He had the justification - City's failure to get close to even a Europa cup spot. He was happy enough to trust MH with this summer's close season spending spree.

The home draws against Fulham, Hull & Burnley must have destroyed the owner's confidence in the manager. The comedy defending seen in those games probably made the Sheikh wonder what he'd got for his money. Since then MH was surviving on a match to match basis, Spurs being the final straw.

MotD Live - Mark Bright has definitely had a bet on the amount of bookings in today's game. He's willing the ref to book the players for innocuous incidents.

United were awful yesterday. That's the title over now, unless the unthinkable happens and West Ham get a win today, even then can't see us getting near them. It's embarrassing just how much we miss Giggs.

We need to buy a decent midfielder in January to give us any chance of keeping up with Chelsea. A new centre back won't be a bad idea either because Ferdinand is going like Ledley King.

You cant seriously think Man Utd are out of the title race

Your starting to sound like Fergie

Good post. Didn't the owners give Hughes more money than originally planned? Maybe thats why they have given him the bullet? As because they accelerated the spending then maybe they expected to see the results quicker as well. Will be interesting to see if Mancini can do any better. I reckon city only appointed him because he has got 'Manc' in his surname?

I'd like to request three away victories in the PL today please.

Nail on head. Will be interesting to see how it all plays out. How long will Mancini get? and will he have to achieve 4th place this season to avoid been given the elbow next summer?

In reality, only those of us who watch City week in, week out really know where it was going wrong and I just constantly found myself being flabbergasted by the ineptitude of it all at times. Time wasn't going to change it. Tactically, he was baffling sometimes and how many of those signings made for the £250 million have really been value for money? Bellamy and Given? And, yes, he did spend far more than the owners envisaged and it's had a negligible impact. Swapping 4 wins and 6 defeats for 1 win, 8 draws and 1 defeat is not progress, it's a point less and that is the only way to look at it.

As for Mancini, well an Italian knows his defence, which is of paramount importance, and he has the experience of managing big egos and having money to spend. Three commodities that were clearly beyond Hughes.

I'm not sure he's the ideal appointment. In honesty, I'm seriously underwhelmed by it all but I do know it's better than we had before and let's see how January goes first and foremost. I fancy a major overhaul of the back four is in the offing and the likes of Toure, Sylvinho and maybe Bridge will be consigned to the dustbin.

I'm just hoping that he is not a guy who prefers the perceived class of Robinho to the endeavour of Bellamy. If he does then he's not the kind of guy we want. If Bellamy's unhappy at Hughes' departure, I want us to convince him that he is very much part of our plans. For all the £250m spent, alongside Given, he's been the best pound for pound signing we have made in years.

On the transfer fee front it's going to be very hard for any Citeh manager to get value for money as any selling club know they can put an additional £5-£10mil on the price knowing full well that Citeh will pay up for it. The players he bought in for £250mil would probably come to considerably less bought by a club that isn't bankrolled to the extent Citeh are.

Sol Campbell's available.



In fairness to Hughes he tried to get one of the World's best in John Terry to move from Champions League and Premier League chasing Chelsea to top four aspiring Manchester City. That was his main problem, he couldn't get the players he wanted, because most are unwilling to leave a club chasing the main competitions for a club that is in the process of building.

Same with Berbatov the other year. Same with Kaka. There's only the likes of Tevez who are willing to drop down for the ££££. Mancini might be able to get a few more big name players to City because of who he is, whereas Hughes was still an up and coming young manager. There's no denying that he's a good manager, but with all the pressure of owners wanting success and spending loads of cash, he was going to struggle to please them. They've treated him like $hit in fairness, and it's just another chapter in the City circus to join with Cook's heroes welcoming for Tevez.

In fact, it's only the circuses at Anfield and Eastlands that have helped bring a bit of cheer to my season so far.



If Mancini can manage Robinho's ego so he isn't begging for a move to Barcelona when he doesn't get played, he'll automatically be at an advantage over Hughes. I'm not exactly sure why Barcelona would want Robinho TBH, he wasn't first choice at Madrid who were a lot poorer than Barca are now.

I see McCarthy's decision to rest players for the United game has paid off today. Six points from nine in a week which included aways to Spurs and United. Can't complain at that, I would imagine most of the Wolves fans who moaned about having to see their reserves have forgiven Mick today.

Still, it's a shame Arsenal and United are only competing over 37 league games this season because of Mick's decision, ey Arsene?

To be honest, the amount of times Mark Hughes would, at the end of a game, blame the referee and whinge about someone else other than his team and tactics was far too often. I'd often finish watching matches and think "what are you on?" He was a loudmouth all through his career and although genuinely I have nothing against him I can see why City's new owners got rid. If you're going to spend that amount of money you need the right manager too. Some people think he only needed to throw money at players and then watch the carnage but in truth you do need the right manager to convey you are serious probably most important of all. Mancini's name will bring in players Hughes unfortunately couldnt have got at this stage of his career.

Would have suited me too but might not get any???

If he isnt going to play Robinho on a regular basis it would be better to get rid. He's never going to accept anything other than a regular starting role.

Much has been said about Robinho's lack of effort and attitude but I think his basic problem is that he doesnt have the physical attributes for the Premier League. He has great footwork and vision but he's very frail, eased off the ball with alarming regularity. He isnt slow, but certainly not lightning fast. He lacks stamina and has a weak shot. He's very dangerous in and around the penalty area but is entirely dependent on his teammates getting the ball to him in dangerous positions. He's never posed a threat from deep positions.

Its not surprising that nearly all his goals came in his early matches before defenders sussed him out. I dont think its so much a case of him going missing in away matches as not being capabale of imposing himself on a game when his team are not dominating.

The Hammers let us fight another day, even after Frank Lampard scored three penalties in a 1-1 draw.

Interesting to see whether there was any encroachment when West Ham had their pen. I don't believe for a second there wasn't because it happens for every pen and nobody's paid any attention until our pen today.

Even when Lampard took the third there was half a dozen Spammers in the box and Drogba had gone in the box as well.

Total joke.

Don't even think it was a pen, but they got away with two in the first half so it's partially evened up.

Thought we were poor again today. We should leave Joe Cole at Upton Park today as a gift to the s. He's only ever been decent for us when Jose was ruling him with an iron fist.

Figures, a team who have won 5 on the bounce come to Goodison and park the bus in front of goal.

And after seeing the replay, Saha's "goal" was fine....although that doesn't surprise me, that linesman was bloody useless all game.

Doing away games again now are we?



I think he will be a good appointment. If city would've gone for Mourinho the already high expectation levels would have gone through the roof.

I remember back in 06/07 I think it was, a side beat us 3-0 just a few months before, only to turn up and build the great wall of China at Anfield...

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