MARK Hughes has warned City fans not to expect any more major summer spending sprees.
The Blues took their remarkable bonanza beyond the £115m mark by finally landing Joleon Lescott this week – the sixth big-money signing of this transfer window.
But Hughes revealed he agreed with the club’s owners in December that they should cram five years’ worth of transfer market activity into two transfer windows to give the club the immediate boost it needed.
They did that, spending £50m in January on Shay Given, Wayne Bridge, Nigel de Jong and Craig Bellamy, and this summer adding Gareth Barry, Roque Santa Cruz, Carlos Tevez, Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Adebayor and now Lescott .
But now City have vowed to curb the big spending, and pump money into their academy to produce their own talent, and into their scouting network to capture and nurture young talent from around the world on the cheap.
Said Hughes: “In the future we won’t be going into the market to this extent again. We have gone very quickly into the market and brought in big numbers of players.
Investing heavily
“Usually in football this doesn’t happen over short periods. We are obviously investing heavily in our academy and in our scouting.
“In future we will be looking to acquire players we feel will add value to the club and become great players at Manchester City, rather than going out to the market and at times paying a premium because we need the players now.
“We will be in the market if top players become available, but it won’t be at the level we have seen in the last two windows.”
The need to spend big now, on experienced players, was motivated by the necessity of qualifying for the Champions League in order to take the club to the next level.
It was a strategy thrashed out when Hughes met with owner Sheikh Mansour and chairman Khaldoon al Mubarak in December.
Said the manager: “I set out what I felt the club needed in terms of players.
“It was basically a process that should have been done over a three- to five-year period but we made the decision that we would try to make it happen in two windows, and to see how far we could get with it.
“For us to bring in the amount of players we have brought in, and the amount who have gone out, means we have changed personnel at an unprecedented level. Twenty-six players have been sold, released or sent out on loan and that is a huge turnover.”
With the £24m capture of Joleon Lescott and former Barcelona left back Sylvinho, brought in on a free, City are expected to have completed their business ahead of next week’s transfer deadline.
There are still likely to be outgoing deals, headed by Richard Dunne who is attracting strong interest from Aston Villa, while Benjani, Tal Ben Haim and Javier Garrido are also expected to leave.
Now Hughes begins the process of moulding his legion of new boys into a team.
He says: “The challenge we have is that we have a lot of new faces, but those new faces are of the type of character that we think will help in that gelling process.”
Can City win silverware this season? Send us your comments
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Yws they can.
Silverware this year would be appreciated but we should put all resources into getting into the top four.
Then we will be in a position to attract a different level of player ( maybe only one or possibly two ) to take it to the next level.
Does "necessity of qualifying for the Champions League" mean that "top 4" is really the target set for MH this season rather than "top 6" as has been consistently quoted?
.......unless Torres, Gerrard , Messi or a player of that ilk becomes available, in which case ignore what has been said!! I have a feeling that sales of the aforementioned may not actually be too far into the future, perhaps in the next 12 months, especially the Liverpool lads and after speaking to quite a few scousers i know, they are well aware of it.
We're still gonna spend big in the future but it'll just be on one or two players per transfer window rather than eight! But to suggest we're never gonna spend big is a bit mad.
And despite all this I still think we're gonna keep one eye on the outgoings at madrid and see if we can take advantage on transfer deadline day...
Man city you are a disgrace to football.No other club ever in the history of football has spent vast amounts of money especially money of their own to assemble a team to challenge the medias presumtion of the big four,who do you think you are trying to break the stranglehold of these clubs who have the god given right to win everything.
Can you not see that by trying to upset the applecart other clubs will now need to prepare for their downfall or at the very least need to make changes to the equillibrium.
So Mr Hughes you and your loyal fans should hang your heads in shame.tut tut tut.
MINT!
Very pleased with what has been achieved, in 12 months as many as 30 players have come and gone and that is quite remarkable, the ones sold or gone have all served thier purpose, the ones loaned out will gain good experience, and the ones brought in have been in my opinion been good but most excellent. Only three now need sorting, would sell Benji, Garrido, and Ben Heim, if poss i would keep Dunnie. Now that Hughsey has his own team in the making all we need from here on in is one or two per transfer window.well done City very impressed, but please no more banana skins.
would hope now for a domestic cup win and at least fifth in the league.
Curb spending? Yep, i agree.. 6 quid for a pie n' pint. Ripoff!
Don't believe this for one minute. If big players come up am sure we will be there to sign them. I still think there is one more superstar signing on the way this transfer window. When Hughes was asked at yesterdays press conference whether the spending was over he side stepped it and said we are in the market for good players. There is someone else am sure of it!!
What no more investment in our chronically light-weight squad? Sack the board!!!
Quality planning form the owner, chairman and Mark Hughes.
Seriously though, what an amazing flipping summer. Hand on heart, how many of us could ever have believed that we would witness anything even half as amazing as this? It's been like a hundred Christmases rolled into one.
Now let's just hope it translates into success on the pitch. Let the good times roll and roll!
Im all for giving Hughes his chance and I hope he does well. If we don't, then it's not the players that are the problem. Time will tell......... Palace 0 - 3 City!
Silverwear!? Outfits to dazzle our opponents perhaps?
That's if you win anything hughesless - if not you'll be replaced and another guy will come in with different plans and want to change things around... and the cheque book will come out again.
Good strategy, we need now to bring on our young players and at the same time scour the world for talented youngsters.
We used to have one of the best scouting systems in football, we need to get back to that and bring promising young players through the ranks to supplement the squad over the next 4-5 years. CTID
I am impressed with your current signings Hughesy except the jury is out on Santa Croc, but reports in the media seem to suggest that you are looking at Riquelme and another defender!!! if this is so can we please get rid of BENJANI an TBH they are the only blot on current squad, utterly useless.
CTID
Don't beleive it we're skint.
Can we at least buy a few Van Gogh's to hang around the concourse of Colin Bell level 3?
Garrido and Benjani leaving are no problems whatsoever.
Kompany has stated he prefers to play in midfield, and unless Hughes is seeing him as one of 4 centre-halfs (and told him so), we probably need to keep one of Ben Haim and Dunne......or sell both and bring in another face)
Still surprised at the radio silence on Martin Petrov and isnt listed by Mr Brennan in the potential departures....surprised because it was he who had his name attached to the Petrov article a few weeks back before the int'l break about Petrov demanding a move. Has something change M.E.N isnt telling us about?
As an aside, what on earth do we do next window? If the target of top 6 has now become a top 4 (not hard to infer this from the Chairman's caginess in answering this question in his interview and also Hughes' admission he has a squad now he expected to take 3yrs to assemble), and we are not within striking distance come January will mean one of 2 things: the squad is still deficient and we will need more "quality", or the manager isnt living up to his end of the bargain.
Let's hope we are firing on all cylinders and in a position where no reinforcements are needed next window because it would mean we are well on our way.
Wow what a team
Givem 7mil, Zabbi 7mil, Toure 14mil, Lescott 24mil, Bridge 12.5mil, Robbi 32.5mil, Barry 12mil (steel), DeJong 18mil, SWP 10mil, Tevez, 25mil, Ade 25mil.
Who in their whildest of dreams woulod have ever dreamed we would have a first team like this worth 187mil.
Oops, I nearly forgot the bench, Bellamy 14mil, Kompany 6mil (steel), Santa Cruz 18mil, Benjani 8mil, Jo 18mil (these is still ours), Caicedo 5mil, Boj 5mil, Now thats 74mil.
Add the Academy players values, Ireland 25mil (am I kind here) Richards 10mil, Onouha 10mil, Hart 5mil, Johnson 5mil (could be sooooo much more) Thats 55mil
So a squad value of 316million whole english pounds (well, Mr sheiks Pounds) AND STILL WE HAVE A FEW GLASS HALF EMPTY SO CALLED FANS. I aint no foamer boys but some people are just soooooooo annoying its untrue.................
Manchester City should look at young players,then consider them staying with their family for one or two years,in that time learn the language and prepare them/family for a move to a different country, hopefully they take less time to settle in!
So, Basically we have a full tank of petrol to get us 800 miles... in a 4.2ltr engine car..... God help the lads reach the Champs league... otherwise we are done for.
Providing Hughes can nuture the squad keep them happy and utilise the right formations then City can at last win that elusive trophy,it will of course depend on the team spirit as well but the indications are that team morale is very good at the present time.
Tonight will I'm sure be a stern test of their characters but it will be a game where we all know Mark Hughes,his staff and all his players will be eager to win and to be honest who would bat against a CITY victory?