MARK Hughes has handed his transfer wish list to owner Sheikh Mansour and chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak and now must wait six weeks to put his plans into action.

The finance is in place for Hughes to be ultra-persuasive once January arrives and the aim will be to bring in new faces as quickly as possible.

City will be looking to coax at least five players into the squad in the four weeks available to them and defence and midfield will be a priority.

But given the quality of the players in squads of Chelsea, Liverpool, United and Arsenal - click on the gallery link to see our graphic - it is clear that Hughes has a difficult task to raise his playing staff to a similar level.

His team has already shown this season that scoring goals is not a problem, even against the elite, but a porous defence shows little sign of closing the back door and has now conceded two goals in five successive matches.

It is a telling fact that the Blues have only won Premier League games in which they have scored at least three times.

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Hughes will target a left back, a central defender, a goalkeeper and at least one central midfielder in January in a bid to stiffen up his brittle Blues but to take the team where he, the owners and the fans want to go, he will eventually have to attract some of the names in the four lists above and that is hard at the best of times and nearly impossible in a mid-season transfer window.

This will be the manager's first stab in the transfer market armed with the Abu Dhabi millions and all eyes will be on how he uses the cash.

Hughes will target players of the ilk of Chelsea's Wayne Bridge, Pompey's Lassana Diarra and Roque Santa Cruz of Blackburn and may well be successful in landing all of them.

All three would improve City and give the manager much-needed options but even then the Blues will be some way off the finished article eventually envisaged by the Sheikh, chairman Khaldoon and the manager himself.

To assemble a side of star names capable of seriously and consistently challenging Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and United takes plenty of time and careful planning.

There is a real danger that expectations may run riot in a transfer window that is notoriously difficult to negotiate for clubs looking to boost their playing stock with top-class material.

That was shown last season when Sven-Goran Eriksson, with money to spend, could only prise away players towards the end of the window and even then gave the impression that they were by no means his first choice.

Superstars at the peak of their powers and with clubs doing well domestically and in Europe simply do not tend to swap horses in mid-race and it may be that Hughes needs next summer and even the one after that to completely revolutionise the look of City's imbalanced squad.

A study of the graphic above gives an indication of the work that lies ahead in terms of buying and selling, wheeling and dealing if the Blues are to compete on a level playing field, with the perennial front-runners.

Just how many of City's starting 11 in the 2-2 draw at Hull on Sunday would find a place in the first teams of those considered the `big four' is open to a great deal of debate.

Bids

Which of those players in Blue at the weekend would be subject to bids from Arsene Wenger, Rafa Benitez, Luiz Felipe Scolari or Sir Alex Ferguson?

Certainly most of the quartet would like Brazilian superstar Robinho in their ranks, Joe Hart would be considered as one for the future and Vincent Kompany would be a welcome addition to squads along with Shaun Wright-Phillips and the rapidly improving Stevie Ireland.

Of course, success can be had in both the league and cups on a fleeting basis without breaking the bank of Abu Dhabi or elsewhere as both Portsmouth and Spurs have shown recently.

Everton, too, have proved that the cartel at the top of the Premier League can be broken into given the correct blend of personnel and tactics but they have also shown that it cannot be easily sustained.

For that to happen there has to be serious investment both in terms of money and time. A side has to be constructed that is balanced both in its skill levels and its personality.

A team is needed that can scrap out 1-0 wins where necessary, turn what appears certain defeat into a draw and then when it is allowed play the kind of flowing football that transports fans to a different planet.

City have managed to royally entertain so far this season and some of their play has been stunning but even the most rabid fan would admit they are a long way from the finished article and that it will take time, patience, nous and lots of money to assemble.

How long will it take to knock City's squad into shape? Have your say.
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