Source: Eurosport
Hughes happy to take it slow at City
Mark Hughes has responded to the critics who say Manchester City have under-achieved, claiming the club's owners are happy to wait for success.The pressure has been on Hughes to achieve at Eastlands following the Abu Dhabi United Group's takeover last summer that gave him unrivalled financial backing.The former Blackburn boss has endured a difficult first season at City and the weekend defeat to Fulham did little to ease growing unrest among fans.The Blues also face an uphill task in turning around their UEFA Cup quarter-final tie with Hamburg, but Hughes claims the club's owners have a long-term plan and did not expect instant success.He said in the Daily Telegraph: "The assumption is made that we should be there and challenging now."That is not going to be the case and the owners have said that they don't anticipate us being ready to challenge for another couple of seasons."We have added to the squad, but Manchester City have never been above eighth in the Premier League. In a sense, we are trying to do something that has not been done before just by finishing seventh."We are not too far away. We just need a couple of strong signings to address conspicuous issues in the team. Maybe the acquisition of different types of players to the ones we already have will leave us in better shape."We are like most squads. The first XI is very strong but if we get injuries, especially two in one position, we don't have enough strength in depth to cope."[LNB]
