Mark Hughes named
Manchester City manager
Manchester
City have named Mark Hughes as their manager and signed him on a
3-year contract, the club officially stated today. After a
second round of talks with Manchester City's management, Mark
Hughes agreed to leave Blackburn and join City to replace Sven-Goran
Eriksson on a three-year contract. "He's an outstanding
manager who has achieved many things with Blackburn. Mark was
always the first choice of our new executive chairman, Garry
Cook. Together they will make a great team. They will both prove
to be excellent acquisitions, I'm sure. These are exciting times
for Manchester City and I hope the supporters can understand
that I share their goals. That sometimes means making ruthless
decisions. Now we can go forward to a new era, with a new
management structure and great hope and ambition,"
Manchester City owner Thaksin Shinawatra said today.
Speculations in the media claim City
have paid Blackburn Rovers £4.6 million in compensation and
Hughes' new contract is reported to be worth £3m a year,
although numbers have not been released by the club yet. With
limited funds in Blackburn, Mark Hughes managed to bring the
club to 7th place finish in the Premier League and with the
money support of Manchester City, he is expected to improve on
the 9th place City held this year. The move led to an upgrade of
the odds on City to win the 08/09 Premier League at the British
online bookmaker
Bet 365 from the previous 500/1
to 200/1, still a long way from the favourite Manchester United
who currently pay even odds.
Published on
06/04/2008
Related News:
E-mail:
news@ogpaper.com