City preview: Hughes’ management skills face huge test

MANCHESTER City are in urgent need of inspiration as they prepare for Sunday’s Premier League opener at Aston Villa.

Last night’s shock 1-0 defeat at the hands of Danish minnows FC Midtjylland was the latest setback for a club in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Owner Thaksin Shinawatra’s much-publicised problems and the implications for new manager Mark Hughes have cast a huge cloud over the club’s pre-season build-up and early skirmishes in the UEFA Cup.

But somehow Hughes must find a way to get City on track for a crucial league campaign.

The first half of last season, under the management of Sven Goran Eriksson, was little short of sensational for the Sky Blues.

Fielding a host of new signings, headed by the brilliant Elano and Martin Petrov, City reached the heady heights of the top four before Christmas.

But injuries and a lack of depth in the squad kicked in during the second half of the campaign and a series of poor results saw them drop to ninth.

That would have been an acceptable effort for many clubs, but the ambitious Shinawatra was not impressed and Eriksson was given his marching orders.

In came Hughes, a man with a fine track record as boss of Wales and Blackburn, and a manager considered the perfect choice to take City to the next level.

But already there seems to be a rift developing between manager and the owner’s advisers and Hughes has not been able to bring in the players he wants, including Roque Santa Cruz, the striker he took to Blackburn.

With marksmen Darius Vassell and Benjani injured and new signing Jo on duty at the Olympics, Hughes has little room for manoeuvre, which is bad news with Villa on the horizon.

Martin O’Neill’s improving team finished sixth last season and, despite the uncertainty over the future of England international Gareth Barry, are likely to be among the teams trying to break the dominance of the big four of Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool.

City kicked off last season with a superb 2-0 victory at West Ham, but the odds against something similar happening at Villa Park are stacked against them.