MARK Hughes is prepared to play the waiting game in an attempt to snare Samuel Eto’o and Carlos Tevez.

The City manager is refusing to give up hope of bagging Eto’o in a £25million move from Barcelona, despite the player’s agent claiming on Tuesday the Cameroon star would prefer to remain in Catalonia.

And, for the first time, Hughes confirmed he is looking to add Tevez to his squad after the Argentinian’s two-year ’lease’ agreement with Manchester United finally expired.

However, after completing a speedy deal for Gareth Barry at the end of last season, and a more protracted one to bring Roque Santa Cruz to Eastlands from Blackburn, Hughes is aware deals for Eto’o and Tevez are unlikely to be straightforward.

“Patience has been mentioned and that is what we will need to be,” said Hughes.

“We have lodged a bid for Samuel Eto’o because I have a lot of respect for him and think it will help us.

“Now there seems to be a situation between the player and his club. It is something which needs to be resolved by them. We are not involved in it.

“Carlos Tevez is another player I have huge admiration for. Everyone knows his situation and it could be that he is available.

“We will see what happens but at this stage it is very early in our discussions.”

Not that Hughes is willing to let moves for either man drag on all summer.

Frustration

If the Welshman does not believe either is going to go through, he will have no hesitation pulling the plug.

“There is always an element of frustration when you cannot conclude deals very quickly but we will give every deal the patience we feel it deserves,” he said.

“However, if we get to a point where we feel something is not going to happen or the situation is stalling and we can’t move it forward, we will move away, as we have done in the past.”

If that was a clear overview on a fairly messy underlying situation, Hughes’ additional statement was pretty unequivocal.

It has been suggested, initially with the British record £32.5million signing of Robinho, then the failed attempt to recruit Kaka from AC Milan, and now the attempts to sign Eto’o and Tevez, that City’s Abu Dhabi-based owners are trying to sign someone who will make the outside world sit up and take notice of the revolution under way at Eastlands.

Hughes feels such opinions are rubbish.

“We are not using the transfer market just to make statements about where we are,” he said.

Quality

“We are trying to build a squad which can be competitive and compete at the top table.

“We want to compete right from the off. The only way we can do that is by bringing top quality players to the club. Then we will try and build in the correct way.

“We are not saying anything to the football world. We are just trying to make this club better.”

Hughes’ latest attempt to make City better is the arrival of Roque Santa Cruz from Blackburn at a cost of £18million.

Having paid just a fraction of that sum to bring him to Lancashire from Bayern Munich two years ago, the value of Hughes’ single season with the Paraguay star emphasises the progress made by the pair.

It was the major reason Hughes made signing Santa Cruz a priority when he joined City last summer.

And, having used some of the patience now needed for Eto’o and Tevez, Hughes is confident it won’t be long before Blues fans understand why he wanted Santa Cruz at Eastlands.

“There were a number of occasions last year when we needed the quality Roque brings, not only on the field but off it as well,” said Hughes.

“I know exactly what I am getting with Roque. He has a great mentality to do his work on a daily basis and he has huge ambition.

“Players in the squad will see what he brings to the club very quickly because he is an outstanding player.”

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