Cook backs Hughes

Garry Cook did a press interview yesterday: it's in the Mail, Independent, Times and Guardian this morning.

He seemed confident that we'd improve in the second half of the season (we can't really get much worse):

Mark and I have always said top 10 and ideally top six is what we are aiming for in the very short term.'In the back half of the year we believe there is going to be much improvement. Mark's plans and the way he is running the team are going to build and change and confidence will start to build. Once we get through the first window, when Mark's impact will be able to advance the future of the club, things will start to settle down.

Regarding Hughes' future management of City:

Sheikh Mansour made that statement in his mandate some time ago and clearly that mandate still exists - Mark Hughes is our manager. Did I expect us to be where we are? No. Did Mark? No. But you get back on the training ground and figure it out.

And on our transfer policy:

We are talking about 'balance' rather than building the Fantasy League team. We are building on the academy; we are looking at young talent breaking into the international scene and we will complement that with some great stars, the kind of stars whom City fans want to see.

The worst news is that Sheikh Mansour gets "emotional" about results. So do most City fans, but I'd like to think that someone with better judgement than an average City fan is running the club. Another interesting point from Cook regards the Santa Cruz transfer. Blackburn are asking for 'close to £20m', which is ludicrous sum of money, but something we'll have to get used to if we actually want to buy good players.