Betrayal of a decent man: Hughes had effectively been axed by City cowards as he celebrated Arsenal cup win

By Ian Ladyman for the Daily Mail
Updated: 06:31 EST, 21 December 2009

As Mark Hughes waved Arsene Wenger off down the tunnel after Manchester City had beaten Arsenal in a thrilling Carling Cup quarter-final on December 2, he wondered privately if it was to be the night that would transform his side’s inconsistent season for the better.

As it happens, it was irrelevant. On that very day, the Italian Roberto Mancini had already given his tacit agreement to City that he would take Hughes’s job.

With the Dutchman Guus Hiddink and Portuguese maverick Jose Mourinho indicating that they didn’t want the post and City’s football administrator Brian Marwood clinging naively to a ridiculous idea that he could tempt Arsene Wenger from Arsenal, the Eastlands board got confirmation from Mancini that, if the terms were right, he would accept the job.

Mark Hughes

Cheerio: Hughes waves to Wenger, but was his own goodbye sealed that night?

That night, Hughes watched the Carling Cup semi-final draw with his staff in an anteroom that leads off the players’ tunnel at City. While those around him expressed hope that they would avoid Manchester United, Hughes was thrilled when the draw pitched him against Sir Alex Ferguson again.

Roberto Mancini

Primed for the role: Mancini allegedly agreed to take over at City in early December

How sad that by that stage he was already effectively out of work. The win over Chelsea that followed that weekend — a victory he described as ‘pivotal for the future’ — and the subsequent disappointments against Bolton and Tottenham didn’t actually matter.

How sad, also, that by Saturday morning nobody at what used to be known as a decent football club had not had the decency, the courage or the simple manners to tell him.

As unfortunate as it is, Hughes found out that his time was up when he saw Saturday morning’s newspapers.

As news of his imminent execution began to leak on Friday afternoon, Hughes and his immediate staff were bullish. As far as they were concerned — they told Sportsmail on Friday — they were safe.

But it was different once they saw it in black and white in this newspaper, and at least three others, on the morning of Saturday’s game against Sunderland.

What followed was undignified, painful and, as far as City are concerned, shameful. Hughes died a death by a thousand cuts in front of 47,000 people at Eastlands on Saturday and those responsible should never allow themselves to forget it.

Confronted by Hughes before the game, City’s executive chairman Garry Cook was unable, or perhaps unwilling, to give the man he appointed in the summer of 2008 any assurances about his future.

Some reports, unconfirmed yesterday, suggested that the conversation became heated. Who could blame Hughes if it did?

Cook, after all, was the man who sat in the Abu Dhabi sunshine just five weeks or so ago and mentioned Hughes in the same breath as Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali.

Khaldoon all Mubarak

Axe men: Khaldoon all Mubarak and  Garry Cook

He said then: ‘I don’t think I have seen anyone handle themselves in public, with all that is going on around with such dignity and integrity as Mark Hughes. I think we share the same visions for the future.’

Along with many of his other public utterances, Cook may wish he hadn’t said that. Or maybe he doesn’t care.

From the moment he — and then the club’s owners from Abu Dhabi — assumed control of the club, the mantra has been about loyalty, patience and dignity. The new Manchester City, they told us, would be different to other football clubs.

Well, they are indeed different. They are worse. And it’s because of this that a decent man and a talented football manager stood embarrassed and alone in the snow on a touchline on Saturday, his torment betrayed by a hollow expression and redness in his eyes.

Things had not been right on the field, of course. Hughes would not attempt to argue that they had.

But despite the fact Kolo Toure had not turned out to be the player he thought he was and Emmanuel Adebayor had proved more inward-looking than he ever could have imagined, the City manager felt his team were still on course for the top-six finish that had been outlined as a minimum requirement at the start of the season.

And he certainly did not deserve to be dismissed in this humiliating way.

Long distrustful of Marwood, Hughes had become similarly suspicious of Cook in recent weeks. After Wednesday’s defeat at Tottenham he didn’t see either of them until Saturday’s game. No text messages of support. No phone calls to offer encouragement.

Hughes never wanted Marwood at the club and objected when it appeared he was to be given a ‘director of football’ title on his arrival in March of this year. He never once thought Marwood was on his side and, as he sought answers at Eastlands on Saturday lunchtime, he certainly wasn’t around to give any.

‘It was weird,’ said one of Hughes’s inner circle yesterday. ‘Nobody would meet our gaze before kick-off. Our wives were upstairs having their lunch and we were beginning to realise we were effectively out of work. But nobody would actually tell us.’

Mark Hughes

Green mile: Hughes trudges off the pitch on the way to hear his fate

For Hughes, the final act came after the whistle blew on a 4-3 win over Sunderland that contained some of the kamikaze football that had, in some ways, typified his reign.

The Welshman was called in to the office of Khaldoon Al Mubarak at Eastlands and during the course of a 15-minute conversation was told his time was up. The goalposts had been moved. The club were now insisting on a top-four finish and no longer felt Hughes could deliver.

Elsewhere his staff, Mark Bowen, Eddie Niedzwiecki, Kevin Hitchcock and Glyn Hodges, were called in by Cook and served their notice. And while they travelled to Hughes’s home in Cheshire for what amounted to a wake, City began their attempts to manage what had become a public-relations disaster.

Billeted away secretly in the Lowry Hotel in Manchester city centre, the Italian Mancini was told he would face the media at 4.30pm on Monday. Having already written his opening address to his new players some time ago, that will be  delivered when they report for training at Carrington this morning.

Manchester City's Roque Santa Cruz

Santa came to late: City striker Santa Cruz prods home what became the last goal of Hughes' time at the helm

As those responsible for this shameful episode left Eastlands on Saturday, there was no attempt made to explain. There was a club statement at 7.30pm and that was it. Cowardly.

Marwood scuttled away at 6.05pm, refusing gruffly to speak to journalists, while one TV reporter who attempted to get close to Khaldoon was, intentionally or otherwise, barged from sight by one of the security goons.

The club will attempt to explain today. Spin will be applied. But it will not matter. What is done is done.

There is a stain on the modern Manchester City’s character now.

People used to like them. Now they will want them to fail. Maybe if Mancini brings trophies it will be a price worth paying.

On Sunday, the lead story on City’s website was one about a new contract for Pablo Zabaleta. Hughes’s dismissal got second billing. Gone and already forgotten.


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