Mark Hughes Hails Manchester City's Great Welsh Hope Ched Evans

Manchester City manager Mark Hughes has revealed that he has felt the disappointment of Wales' recent international results as keenly as any Welshman, but is also optimisitic about the future and, in particular, because of one young player at Eastlands.

Striker Ched Evans, already a full Welsh international at the age of 20, is seen as being an integral part of the bright future planned by Hughes for City and, after a successful spell on loan at Norwich City, the forward has built the foundations for a fine career with club and country, his boss believes.

"You want your young players to make an impact when they go on loan, and Ched quickly showed he could play in the Championship standing on his head," Hughes told City's official website.

"He's played games in the Premier League now and acquitted himself really well, so he can play at a high level. His international career will supplement his career here and help his development as well."

Hughes was also optimisitic about his country's progress in general, as he believes a good crop of young players are rising up, along with Evans.

"Obviously it's better if he's in a winning team - it can be a bit soul-destroying if you are in a group of young players not getting positive results. But looking at the crop coming through, hopefully things will change," the Eastlands gaffer continued.

"A lot of them are playing for Premier League teams and getting exposure to the hardest league in the world. You'd like to think that, because of that, they will progress rapidly. It's about maintaining that progress."

As for the home defeats Wales endured last week, results that killed off their hopes of qualifying for next summer's World Cup, Hughes acknowledged the pain.

"As a Welshman, it does hurt," he explained.

"There was no disgrace in losing to Germany, but they let themselves down earlier against Finland and that was the key fixture.

"They didn't perform and the possibility of qualifying was over at that point."

Zack Wilson, Goal.com