Mark Hughes Urges Patience as City Fans Increase Expectations

Mark Hughes Quote:

"City are a work in progress and patience is needed to build a side which is capable of taking on the very best in the league.

"We have not had the benefit of one transfer window yet," said the City boss.

"We need to go through three or four before we can even suggest that we are going to challenge at the top end.

"There will come a point when everybody says 'this is the moment when we can have a real go. We are nowhere near yet, everybody has to understand that."

Okay, we have been taken over by Abu Dhabi and we are amongst the richest in the world now but we are hardly up there in terms of glory.

Sure we have the history, sure we were once a force in English football but we are starting to enter a new era and the future is looking good from a financial point of view—but we are hardly Champions League material.

Now i know my fellow fans well enough, just like me I would say they are outspoken, proud, honest, loyal, and realistic. I have been a member of many City boards and met a lot of City fans, whether it be at a match or on the net, and I can honestly say I have not once come across a single City fan that has used our new found wealth to wind up other club's fans, not once have I noticed any City fan state we were a Champions League club or that we were going to win anything this year.

All this talk about us breaking the top four in 08-09 was all the media's doing, no City fan thought this.

The truth is we City fans are realistic, we all know its going to take 2-3 years to achieve Champions League status and we all know we are at least 3-4 years away from any chance of winning the English Premier League title. If we did end up achieving anything sooner then that would be due to hard work.

Sure we would like to see our club win the UEFA Cup but then we also know that would be a huge achievement and realistically we have eyes fixed on at least a quarter or semifinal place.

So getting to the point, if I know my fellow City fans well enough then Hughes will get the patience he wishes.

One thing I will say though, I hope for a better second half to our season as I believe we do not deserve to be in the bottom 12 of the Premier League so I hope for all of us that we have a great run in the UEFA Cup and the EPL.

I know some City fans have lost faith in Hughes, some probably want him to fail but come the end of January if Mark Hughes does his job, I can see most changing their opinions and views on him. I hope for our sake he does do the job and does not fail.