December 19 – Manchester City’s billionaire Middle East owners tonight sacked manager Mark Hughes (pictured) and replaced him with former Inter Milan coach Roberto Mancini to try to justify their investment in the Premier League club.
Hughes was dismissed despite City beating Sunderland 4-3 at Eastlands.
City’s chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, and owner, Sheikh Mansour, had grown increasingly disillusioned with City’s poor form, having watched Hughes’ side win just twice in 11 league games.
Al Mubarak said: “A return of two wins in 11 Premier League games is clearly not in line with the targets that were agreed and set [at the beginning of the season].
“Sheikh Mansour and the board felt that there was no evidence that the situation would fundamentally change.”
The statement also confirmed the appointment, with immediate effect on a permanent contract, of former Italian international Mancini, while Brian Kidd joins the team as assistant manager.
Under Mancini (pictured), Inter won Serie-A three consecutive times between 2004 and 2008, two Italian Cups and two Italian Super Cups.
The 45-year-old, who won 36 Italian caps and had a brief spell in the Premier League with Leicester City, stepped down in March 2008 and has been regularly linked with a series of vacancies in England.
City are up to sixth in the table but the 3-0 midweek drubbing by Spurs was the final straw for the owners, who took over the club in September 2008 and have invested more than £200 million players.
Players Craig Bellamy and Shay Given led a six-man delegation to a meeting with chief executive Gary Cook after axed Hughes made an emotional dressing room speech telling them that Mancini was replacing him.
Mancini has been handed a three-and-a-half year deal at £3 million a year after a series of meetings with Cook and Al Mubarek following the draw with Hull City on November 28.