Man City fans need to be realistic - Hughes

Mark Hughes must have had a strange few months. One moment he was manager of Blackburn and winning plaudits, the next moment he was heading towards the end the transfer window as Manchester City boss. Then, as we all know, Man City were taken over by multi-billionaires on deadline-day and became the richest club in world football.

Now the former Manchester United and Wales striker has told fans to be realistic! Is that really a reasonable request when the new Middle Eastern owners can earn more in interest on their wealth than they can ever sink into a football team?

However, to be fair, the comments Hughes has made in an article in The Metro are probably spot-on. They show he is still aware money doesn't buy everything. Well, not quite everthing, anyway. And he's not telling fans to temper their desire for world-class players - far from it - but instead pointing out signing big-names in January, halfway through the Champions League tournament, is never easy.

He said: "There are exceptionally talented players around that we would bring to the club if they were made available. The difficulty will be getting the clubs to release those players. We obviously are talking about players whose clubs are involved in the Champions League.

"They may not be very receptive to losing those players midway through a Champions League season. Maybe it will be more difficult in January than people realise. But we will pursue targets we can realistically get."

At least the mainstream media is finally coming round to the idea that Man City do, in fact, have practically unlimited cash. The article mentions "almost limitless wealth," so hopefully fans of other teams in the Premier League and beyond will finally start accepting the full implications of Monday's takeover.