Citeh? You're having a laugh...

So picture this... you give a man as much money as he wants, allowing him to buy the best available players from around the footballing world (which totalled about £200m); you agree a performance target of a Top 6 finish and around 70 points for the season...and then...you sack him! 

What's that all about? Sometimes the actions of Premier League football clubs are laughable.  Manchester City currently lay 6th in the Premier League table (on target); if they win their next 2 games (likely, as they are vs Stoke & Wolves) they will be at the halfway point of the season and have exactly 35 points (on target). They are in their first Cup semi final for over 20 years where they face Man Utd in January. A reasonable man might think 'So far so good' right? Obviously not. There are few reasonable men running the boardrooms of Premier League football clubs these days. 

Hughes spent nearly £200m on players during his 18-months at the helm, including a record-breaking British transfer fee of £32.4m on Robinho. He also spent heavily on Gareth Barry (£12m), Roque Santa Cruz (£16m), Tevez (£25m), Adebayor (£25m), Kolo Toure (£15m) and Lescott (£22m). It would have been considerably more had outrageous bids for Kaka, Terry and Eto' been accepted...

I think Barry and Tevez were good signings, but the others came with special Arab billionaire price tags...and have not yet proved their worth. But he's not been sacked because of poor transfers.  

City released a statement in which Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak 'explained' the club's decision  "The targets were agreed as a result of the player acquisition strategy of the club being radically accelerated in the summer. A return of two wins in 11 Premier League games is clearly not in line with the targets that were agreed and set. Sheikh Mansour and the board felt that there was no evidence that the situation would fundamentally change."

Now admittedly a run of 7 consecutive draws is problematic when you're pushing for a top 6 finish, but on the other hand, whist they've drawn too many games, City have only lost 2 matches this season - a last minute heartbreaker to Utd *smile* and a fairly significant trouncing by Spurs last week. That's fewer games lost than anyone else in the league!!  When they are where they wanted to be (top 6) and on track for their points target (plus a semi final against their nemisis), how can the evidence suggest that Hughes was doing anything other than what he was contracted to do?   

This is another instance of a multi-billionaire owner throwing his toys out of the pram because they weren't top of league and running away with it. Ask Sir Alex Ferguson...it takes a long time to get to the top...

The question is, can Roberto Mancini do any better? He has been out of football for 18 months since Inter Milan sacked him and replaced him with Jose Mourinho last summer. He did do very well in Italy, but that is no guarantee of success in the Premier League...Only time will tell..

One thing is for certain though...the timing is such that Mancini will be able to spend another fortune in the upcoming January transfer window! Watch out for an influx of Italians to Manchester!