Talk of limitless funds and hundreds of millions of pounds burning a hole in the Blues boss’s back pocket as the window flings open at midnight tomorrow are, however, wide of the mark.
Although no-one at Eastlands is prepared to talk numbers for fear of negatively distorting an already hugely inflated market, Hughes is thought to have somewhere between £40-£60m to spend.
That said, owner Sheikh Mansour and chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak might be prepared to add more should a superstar suddenly become available.
Cheered by four points from the last six that quickly catapulted the Blues out of the bottom three in the league, Hughes is going into the New Year in high spirits and with confidence boosted.
He knows full well that City is now one of the most attractive destinations in European football for players with the right mixture of desire and ambition.
However, he is also savvy enough to warn the rest of football that to expect the Blues to be the ones who oil the wheels of the transfer market on their own is far-fetched.
“The window in not just about acquiring players it is also about what the budget will withstand,” he declared. “The main aim is to bring in quality that supplements the quality that we already have.
“We have to make sure the deals that we do are the right deals but at the same time – and I have said it before - we will not be paying vastly over the market value for anyone.
“There are those who believe that City will be the club to stimulate the market next month and that most of the money sloshing around will be our money. It is assumed that everyone else will be able to do deals with the money that we have given them but at the end of the day we have to protect the business that is Manchester City.
“Agents have to understand that we have realistic market values that we have placed on players and clubs have to understand that too.”
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steve perry (31/12/2008 at 12:49)