MARK Hughes has warned the club's youngsters that the route to the top at City has got steeper and more hazardous.

The Blues boss was proud to manage a young squad of current Academy players, plus home-grown pair Stevie Ireland and Nedum Onuoha, during last week's bridge-building jaunt to Abu Dhabi.

But he has made it plain to those kids that they need to improve their standard if their dream of pulling on the blue shirt in the first team is ever to be realised.

City's Platt Lane hothouse has an excellent record of producing blooms for the first team, with Ireland, Onuoha, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Joey Barton, Micah Richards, Michael Johnson and Daniel Sturridge among recent graduates.

But the transformation of the club into a financial powerhouse under the ownership of Sheikh Mansour has brought about a slight shift in policy.

The new owners have made it plain that they see the Academy as central to their long-term plans for the club.

They have already financed a revamp of the Platt Lane facilities, and have effected a shuffle which now sees successful Academy boss Jim Cassell heading up an international expansion of the concept.

They are under no illusions that in order to boost the club into the European big time means finding short-term solutions - hence the decision to cram three years of spending into the last two transfer windows.

But the City plan is that once they get into the big time, they will be able to attract and buy bigger names, making the route through to the first team even harder.

"The standard is going to rise year on year, and for young players to be able to break into the senior City side is going to be more difficult in future," said Hughes bluntly.

"But that shouldn't deter any young player involved at City from giving everything that they have to ensure they give themselves the best possible chance of being a Premiership footballer at one of the biggest clubs in the Premier.

"That's the challenge for any young players now. Maybe in the past the level they had to hit to get into the City first team was lower.

"Now the bar has been raised and everyone has to raise their own standard in order to get into the team."

The loss of several players on international duty last week meant Hughes could take a young squad out to Abu Dhabi for the friendly against the United Arab Emirates.

As well as giving them a taste of the high life, with five nights at the sumptuous Emirates Palace Hotel, it also gave them a feel for the expectation and atmosphere which exists beyond the pitches at Carrington and Platt Lane.

And they were given a stiff test by a young UAE team, before going down 1-0.

"It was good experience for the younger players in our squad," said Hughes.

"A lot of them haven't experienced a stadium of that ilk with a decent crowd, and under floodlights it creates a different atmosphere to academy and reserve games.

"So it was a good learning process for them. Obviously we want to win every game but from a development point of view, it was a good exercise for the young lads."