Hughes out, Mancini in

Whilst his team were involved in a seven-goal thriller Mark Hughes sat in his dugout fully aware that media speculation was rife that he was about to be sacked.

The former Manchester City manager has insisted that he had been given no formal indication from his employers that he was to lose his job. If this was the case, and there is no reason to disbelieve Hughes, then this is a shocking indictment of the men who run the football club.

The fact that his successor was in place so quickly suggests that this decision was made some time ago as its takes a reasonable period just to agree personal terms. I am sure Mancini would have had a series of requests that would have required a certain degree of negotiation.

What has gone wrong for Hughes? He has won only one game in 11 is the best place to start and this statistic alone is enough to put him under pressure. More importantly, it is the quality of the opposition that his team have drawn that would have concerned his employers. Bolton and Birmingham away, and Hull and Burnley at home, are games that should be won if the aspirations to get to the Champions League this season are to be realised.

There is also a perception in football that only big names can manage the current superstars of world football and Hughes has always been tagged in some quarters as not quite fitting this image. Either a manager must have an impeccable record, a Ferguson, Wenger or Capello if you like, or they must have been a recent football star. The problem for Hughes was that he did not quite fit either category. A talented and successful footballer he most definitely was, but not a superstar, and managing Blackburn and Wales does not give his CV the stellar look required.

His position was always a tricky one and only good results would have saved him which, unfortunately, has not been enough over recent weeks. Beating Chelsea and Arsenal are fantastic achievements and motivating players for these games is easy, but against the 'lesser' sides this is where the manager earns his money and he has failed in this area.

Another problem for Hughes is there have been two very successful high profile managers available for work, namely Mancini and Gus Hiddink. While managers with their track records are available then everyone at a big club will be under extra pressure.

Roberto Mancini comes with an amazing club record including an Italian Cup in his first season with Fiorentina, the same with Lazio two years later and then three Scudettos with Inter Milan. These are serious credentials, indeed, and the only reason he left Inter was he had failed to make the impact in Europe that the club expected him to. This is an indication of how far he had taken the club because Scudettos were now being taken for granted and considering they had not won the Championship since 1989 then this was some position to leave them in.

Mancini has been rumoured for some time to be interested in a Premiership post and has apparently been learning English according to his friend and former Chelsea manager Gianluca Vialli. He will not be fazed by the big spending he will be expected to do as Inter provided him with huge funds to achieve glory. However, a life in football is not always straightforward as the more money a manager spends the more expectations are raised.

The timing of his arrival is no surprise as, if the owners were planning to sack Hughes then they could not let him spend more money in the January transfer window only for a new manager to be in place with players he may not think are suitable.

The problem for Mancini will not be winning matches as I am sure he will improve on the record Hughes has achieved. No, the problem for the Italian will always be assessing what the owners of the club believe success for Manchester City is. Winning games and trophies as Mourinho did at Chelsea is not always enough as Ambramovich wanted success with style.

I am sure that a press statement will follow soon about how this will be a long-term plan with the success criteria that must be met at each stage, but these plans often have a habit of shifting immeasurably over time so are not be trusted.

This is even more likely to be true when the club concerned is Manchester City, who have swapped one manager for another for the last 20 years in a desperate bid to emulate their rivals across the city. Until they realise, though, that this same success was achieved with one man given time to develop a club then we may well be reading about Mancini's replacement sooner than we think.