this might make more time than you think

By: j | December 31st, 2008

Venturing towards the transfer window, Mark Hughes is being loud and clear that Man City’s rich coffers won’t be taken advantage of as he will maintain a value-minded approach:

“We’re aware of this assumption about the level of finance that we’ll throw at the project in January, but we still have realistic market values. There is also an assumption that we will stimulate the market, that the money sloshing around will be from the deals that we have started, but we have to make sure we protect the Club as well.

“We’re hoping to go into the market and acquire players that we think will help us, but it is still dependent on whether clubs are willing to deal with us or not.

“The deals that we do will have to be good ones, but we are quite happy at the moment. We know that there will be a premium that we will probably have to pay because it’s January, and teams don’t want to lose their better players. But it will not be to the extent where we are paying hugely over the market value.”

This of-course could be a preemptive public statement as many clubs are in very troubled financial position and most are expecting proposed market value’s to tumble, leading Man City into a very opportunistic position.

With the club languishing in thirteenth place and suffering from extremely inconsistent play time is of-the-essence and it will be necessary to act with speed.

“We hope we can do business quickly, because that will help us, but you can’t judge on whether the deals you want to happen will do when the time is right.

“We have to make sure that the players we want to bring in are good for us in terms of quality and their position in the squad. If we do that I am very positive for the second half of the season.

“It’s not an exact science. You have to look at what’s out there, what’s attainable and the price clubs are asking for. If you come to the conclusion that things are right for the team and the club, then you start to make things happen.

“There is a budget out there, and we will work within that. The key thing is to make sure the quality we bring in supplements the quality we already have here. I feel that the addition of the right players will give us more consistency in the second half of the season.”

Likely Mark Hughes will look at this situation as a chance to add players that can assist immediately but additionally be aware that most of best acquisitions will need to wait for the summer transfer season.