Hughes happy after owner chat

City boss expects to have time to rebuild club

Last updated: 14th November 2008

Hughes happy after owner chat

Hughes: Rebuild will take time

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Mark Hughes is confident the Manchester City owners understand it will take time for the club to realise their potential.

The Abu Dhabi United Group bought the club two months ago and Hughes travelled to Dubai to meet the owners in midweek.

The discussions followed reports that Hughes' position as manager is already under threat with City 13th in the Premier League table after one win in seven games.

However, Hughes is not worried about his job and believes the owners are aware of how long the rebuilding process will take.

Building for future

When asked if he was fretting about the speculation, Hughes said on Sky Sports News: "That will always be out there.

"Obviously we are looking to improve results, but I think the vast majority of performances have been okay. We've not got as many points on the board as we had hoped to at this point, but we know where we're at.

"At this moment in time we're trying to build for the future, there will be a little bit of pain along the way and we have to accept that.

"I think Sheikh Mansour and chairman Khaldoun (Al Mubarak) understand that we're building for the future and it's not a process that is concluded overnight.

"It's an ongoing thing that will continue to develop over the next few years."

Absolute mandate

Following the meeting, owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan gave his backing to Hughes and the manager wants the statement to be viewed in a positive light.

He added: "Whenever the owner or chairman speaks about the club and the manager, then obviously maybe a negative agenda will interpret that in one way, but people won't understand what we're actually saying.

"Others will interpret that in a positive way, but the key line in the statement that Sheikh Mansour put out almost immediately after I left is that I have an absolute mandate in the short term, medium term and long term.

"I think people should really concentrate on that statement, rather than any other interpretation that they put on the statement that came out."