Manager Hughes has steered his team into the last eight of the UEFA Cup - our first European quarter-final for 30 years - and is getting injured players back to make a sustained push for seventh place in the Premier League.
His status as a former idol at Old Trafford did not make him an instant favourite with all fans, but he said: “I said from Day One that I’m a professional football manager - my experience as a player and manager is there, it will always shape what you try to be in the future.
“But people should understand what I am about. My focus is is totally on making Manchester City a success in the future. I work all the hours that God gives us to make sure that happens.
“If everything comes together as we feel it will do, then we will be successful. It would give me enormous pleasure to be successful here. I could very easily have shied away from this role, but I wasn’t prepared to do that because I knew what could happen here if I could get it going.”
Hughes and other key figures at the City of Manchester Stadium have attended an executive summit this week that proved to be an eye-opener for the ever-enthusiastic manager.
He said: “I’m very impressed by how much progress has already been made throughout the club. It’s been a huge year for everybody at the club. There have been brave changes when we could have pottered around and remained as we were.
“But in the end, we wouldn’t have been able to sustain any success we had. The way the club is now, the structure and the people in key positions, the club can only get better. It is being driven with pace.
“I’ve been very impressed by what I’ve been hearing, and the plans in place for the future will ensure that when success comes - and it will - it will be here for a long time.”
