Mark Hughes keeps up pursuit of Chelsea captain John Terry

19 July 2009 18:05
The Manchester City manager has already irritated Chelsea with his doggedness in his pursuit of the defender, especially after they rejected his approaches, but he is refusing to take no for an answer and testing Chelsea's patience in the process. For one thing, Hughes knows that even though Terry has been offered improved terms to his contract at Stamford Bridge, it will not be as financially impressive as the one he could expect in Manchester. Until Terry puts pen to paper on a Chelsea contract, Hughes will hope that he can convince the defender to move north. "He's obviously the type and the calibre of player we need if we're going to progress and compete at the top level," Hughes said. "There may be a point that we concede, but I don't think we're at that point as yet." With the exception of the midfielder Gareth Barry, the thrust of City's £80 million investment this summer has been centred on fortifying the club's attacking options. On Saturday, Emmanuel Adebayor joined the club from Arsenal on a five-year deal for a fee of £25 million, and he will have to compete for a first team place with Roque Santa Cruz, Carlos Tevez, Craig Bellamy, Valeri Bojinov, Benjani and, of course, Robinho. Surely, Hughes has some interesting work ahead of him massaging bruised egos thanks to such an embarrassment of riches, but of more immediate concern is redressing the balance of his squad and bringing some stardust to the back line. So far, he has drawn a blank. Everton, like Chelsea, are refusing to play ball, and have rejected a £15 million bid for Joleon Lescott. "We're still in the market for players – we're looking to strengthen all areas of the team," Hughes confirmed. "We've invested in the attacking side of our squad, added to our strength in midfield and obviously we'd like to address defensive areas now. We're still looking for quality players that will help us in the future." Given the significant pressure on him to deliver – and it increases yet further every time he signs a player with designs on playing in the Champions League – Hughes is remaining impressively composed, and is wise enough to refrain from tying himself to a specific timetable dictating when the club should achieve the various targets that he no doubt described to the players when convincing them to sign. "We have a plan that we feel, if we can get the right players in, will enable us to be competitive," he said. "We can't come out with bold statements – 'we will definitely do this in X amount of seasons'. It's very difficult to predict but what we can say is there's a will to try and compete at the top table in the English Premier League and beyond."

Source: Telegraph