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."
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49rs, Abu Dhabi (17/11/2009 at 11:27)
This was a potential banana skin and we duly slipped up in 'typical City' fashion. We get there and because there is none of the faux hysteria that greets United when they arrive in malaysia, thailand and vietnam (the bedrock of their support outside the home counties), it's deemed as 'no-one is interested in City, not even in Abu Dhabi'.
the truth is all available tickets were sold and people were being turned away but we still end up looking useless.
The game itself, we played a badly under-strength team who in the first half displayed 'typical City' complacency and didn't show up at all til the second half.
Taylor and Benjani were both appalling and should never get near the first team again.
End result, we go for the high profile and then look rubbish.
It would have been better to go there and do the local community stuff, open training sessions, etc etc, end of. Or not go there at all.
When we conceded, we texted one of our UAE friends who got us tickets from the Sheikh, to let him know. His response was 'Are you serious ? That's really funny!'
Plus ca change Hughesie, plus ca change.
PJS, Oz (17/11/2009 at 12:01)
That leads us to the current crop, 5 representatives at the u20 level all given starts by Hughes to stake their claim. The only 2 players that played that seem to have promise as the likes to follow Ireland, Ned etc are Jav Vidal, who despite being played out of position showed he is perhaps the nearest to staking a claim in the first side. Other than than the 18yr old Alex Nimely is raw and has promise with age on his side.
Having seen the likes of Marshall, Tutte, Trippier & Mee underperform at the u20 World Cup (Mee the only regular in the setup, the others probably getting opportunities because the likes of Delph and Gibbs dropped out already being in 1st team setups) will simply not cut it. They will end up like the Mears, Crofts, Jordans, Floods etc of the world.
Jack Thorley Trafford, Timperley (17/11/2009 at 12:36)
There is a huge difference in playing in front of a few hundred people every week and playing on the big stage of first team football.
The Academy costs an estimated 2 Million a year to run,the article mentions seven players who have come through the ranks since the Acadamy opened in 1997 replacing the old Schools of Excellence that had been running sine 1986.
Of the 7 players mentioned only Onuoha who joind the club in 1996 as a 10 year old has not previously been with another club.Barton and Johnson(Everton) SWP(Notts Forrest)Sturridge(30kCoventry) Richards (175k Oldham) Ireland I am not sure which Irish club we got him from.
The point I am making is despite all the investment since 1997 has the Academy produced that much better standard of player?
If you take away the 22 Million fee we received for SWP,is this level of investment justified.Surely it would be better just to buy some of the top 16 year old that are around each season.
City Slipper, Manchester (17/11/2009 at 13:17)
17/11/2009 at 11:27
That was an interesting post.
If the academy graduates are good enough then they will play, or, at least, should play. Nothing has really changed in that regard. They do need games with the senior team to prove themselves though. It's no good not trying them out.
jo alves (17/11/2009 at 13:40)
ted knott, droylsden (17/11/2009 at 13:43)
Jordie, Manchester (17/11/2009 at 14:15)
17/11/2009 at 11:27
You're obviously a dreamer.
Harry Dowd's Broken Finger, Guildford (17/11/2009 at 14:24)
ted knott, droylsden
17/11/2009 at 13:43
There all working with Jim building the international set up.
It's pretty obvious it will be much harder for youngsters to claim a first team place given our ambition to be world class. This means we will be recruiting world class younsters. We saw the standard of some of our existing youngters playing for the first team in Abu Dhabi and they are a million miles away from the standard Arsenal set. None of those that have come through the acedemy in recent years can be catergorised as world class. There goes the difference.
True Blue,Galway.Ireland, Galway (17/11/2009 at 14:25)
Edwardo'(Gerry Craney's love child), Sale (17/11/2009 at 14:29)
Jack Thorley Trafford, Timperley
Emmmmmm,not neccessarily so Chelsea have done that for the last few years with a £13m youth team for the 2008 FA Youth final,but were sent packing by a City youth team that only included one player we'd paid any kind of fee for(Weiss)????
Harry Dowd's Broken Finger, Guildford (17/11/2009 at 15:12)
ted knott, droylsden
17/11/2009 at 13:43
All gone with Jim to the International set up.
It is plainly obvious we need to attract world class youngsters to match our world class ambitions. Yes we have had success in bringing players through in recent years but none of them can be deemed world class footballers, yet at least. Watching the friendly in Abu Dhabi last week confirmed we are a million miles away from the Arsenal standard, hence the international youth group set up to establish a world class acedemy.
Jack Thorley Trafford, Timperley (17/11/2009 at 16:42)
City's 2008 FA youth Cup winning side has only produced one player that is exceptional and that is Weiss.Chelsea as you say were a team that had been brought virtually that season for a lot of money.The reason that City won that night was that we were a 'team of players' who had been together for a number of years while the Chelsea players hardly new each others names their team did not include one UK born player.
But in my opinion they had at least three very good individual players who I marked on my programme while we only had the one Weiss.
The last two occasions that we were involved in FA Youth Cup finals was in 1990 which produced 5 first team players and prior to that in 1986 when 8 of the team were in the first team squad the following season! I rest my case.
The Marine, Oldham (17/11/2009 at 17:23)
RJKS, St Retford (17/11/2009 at 17:23)
RJKS, St Retford (17/11/2009 at 17:27)
tommybatess, Langley (17/11/2009 at 17:48)
have made or look like making the Premiership grade,thats why Jim boy and his staff have been moved out of the way.
Edwardo'(Gerry Craney's love child), Sale (17/11/2009 at 18:30)
An how many of Chelsea's have made it through,think more City players would have made it through if a certain Sheikh hadn't come along like Mee and Ball thought they were great in the final and Vidal has looked great in the games iv seen him. Another issue is Hughes himself he seems to lack the courage to blood young talented academy products,instead prefers to perserve with some of his expensive signings that aren't producing the goods in the hope they will come good .
kare ingebritsen city legend (17/11/2009 at 19:05)
Secondly, the changes in coaching staff is blamed for poor academy results. ABSOLUTE RUBBISH. It is simply down to the fact that the standard & quality of the present U18 squad is poor in relation to previous seasons. I have been following academy teams for years & you always get a feeling what the U18's are going to be like 2 years down the line by watching the present U16's. I knew 2 seasons ago that the present U18 squad wouldn't be very good as the U16's of 2 years ago were very poor & getting indifferent results every week. Please note that this was before MH came to the club & before changes in the coaching staff. Most local lads join a club at 9 or 10 years of age & are with the club up until 18 when they play for the senior academy side. So if you are going to blame any one blame the scouts who 8 or 9 years ago failed to bring in players of sufficient quality that particular year. Not that I would blame them myself because there is a lot of competition to get the best youngsters & you are not going to get a brilliant intake year on year.
Having got all that off my chest I still think there are about 3 outstanding individuals in the present squad & if only one comes through to represent the 1st team at the very top level the academy is doing well.
kare ingebritsen city legend (17/11/2009 at 19:08)
Secondly, the changes in coaching staff is blamed for poor academy results. ABSOLUTE RUBBISH. It is simply down to the fact that the standard & quality of the present U18 squad is poor in relation to previous seasons. I have been following academy teams for years & you always get a feeling what the U18's are going to be like 2 years down the line by watching the present U16's. I knew 2 seasons ago that the present U18 squad wouldn't be very good as the U16's of 2 years ago were very poor & getting indifferent results every week. Please note that this was before MH came to the club & before changes in the coaching staff. Most local lads join a club at 9 or 10 years of age & are with the club up until 18 when they play for the senior academy side. So if you are going to blame any one blame the scouts who 8 or 9 years ago failed to bring in players of sufficient quality that particular year. Not that I would blame them myself because there is a lot of competition to get the best youngsters & you are not going to get a brilliant intake year on year.
Having got all that off my chest I still think there are about 3 outstanding individuals in the present squad & if only one comes through to represent the 1st team at the very top level the academy is doing well.
Ashley Slatford (17/11/2009 at 20:57)
Pivo, Manchester (18/11/2009 at 00:09)
Pivo, Manchester (18/11/2009 at 00:37)
Harry Dowd's Broken Finger, Guildford (18/11/2009 at 08:44)
17/11/2009 at 17:23
Most world class players play in the best league in the world, the English Premiership.
Howard (18/11/2009 at 08:45)
Jason Bye, Manchester (02/12/2009 at 12:49)
17/11/2009 at 19:08
Harry Dowd's Broken Finger, Guildford
17/11/2009 at 14:24
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Spot on, The scouts must focus on players with technique, vision and intelligence [in attack or defense] not rubbish [stamina height]. Then the youngster should be coached with up-to-date coaching methods and also focus on individual development of players over winning.