We are no more than 72 hours away from the start of the Premiership League and the news is dominated by Manchester City's owner Thaksin Shinawatra. No doubt the readers will have heard of this controversy already, the person that should be most concerned is Mark Hughes. Just two months after he agreed to join the club and with talk of the club being the next powerhouse in the English game it has suddenly fallen flat.

Reports have stated that all of Shinawatra's acquisitions since his takeover have been with a small down payment with big bulk payments to come over the next two seasons. This could see the club have to make good cup runs domestically or on the continent. Hughes no doubt was sold a very exciting package when he was offered the job, things must be different now though. He is a professional and will carry on with the job but only with limited funds.

That said Manchester City do have some very talented young players in Johnson, Richards, Hart and Onuoha and with one of the most prosperous youth academies in the country Hughes does have a strong foundation to build on. Things could be a lot worse, if Ronaldinho did accept City's offer then they would be paying one player an estimated £9 million a season which would be a huge drain on resources.

The team have a good young manager and a solid spine of players so it is not all doom and gloom, the factor is that the club will have to build a lot more slowly than what was first expected. The fans will undoubtedly back the manager and hopefully see some good results this coming season.