Manchester City Chief Garry Cook Hits Out Over Mark Hughes' Sacking

Manchester City chief executive Gary Cook has this afternoon spoken out to clarify the situation regarding the weekend dismissal of Mark Hughes from his position as manager.

Goal.com UK has this statement in FULL below:

All about Mancini now

"I think it's worth mentioning at this point that this is a press conference to appoint Roberto Mancini as the manager of Manchester City.

"However, with that said, there's been a lot of conjecture about the process of Mark Hughes' departure. The club made a statement about this on Saturday, and it maintains and reflects our position. However, in light of the comments, and more importantly the characterisation of events, I'm going to take this opportunity to add some points.

"The reason for this is so that the fans, City fans everywhere, understand some of the facts behind the last few days.

"I'd like to give thanks to Mark and his team for everything that they did hear at the club, and just to reiterate the respect that everyone here at this club, and the owners, had for Mark and his team. This has been a very difficult decision for the board, the owner and the management team. It wasn't one that was taken lightly.

Sparky not hitting targets despite massive resources

"At the end of last season, we set a target of sixth place finish, That was well documented, and it has created conjecture. But following the accelerated acquisition strategy and the activity of the club in the summer transfer window, the new target, agreed with the staff was 70 points.

"The trajectory of recent results was below this requirement. The Board felt there was no evidence this situation would fundamentally change.

"The owner, the chairman and myself all worked to give Mark any resources that he might require to achieve that goal. Some of the characterisation of events over the last two days has been particularly disappointing, considering in the last 15 months, there have been occasions that Mark's position was questioned by people outside the club.

"The support that he was shown many times, and the resource he was given, was complete and extensive.

Chairman's transparent dealings

"The chairman has been nothing but transparent with Mark, and throughout his tenure, he's communicated with him regularly - particularly over the last several weeks.

"In keeping with that behaviour, the chairman got on a plane and came to Manchester to meet with Mark and explain to him the situation personally.

"Once the decision had been taken, the board felt the sooner the change was made, the less disruption there would be, and the fairer and more appropriate it would be for Mark and his team.

"The intention was to tell mark after the game on Saturday. That would then give Roberto a full week to prepare for the game at the weekend. Regrettably - and I repeat, regrettably - against all our efforts, the rumours of our discussions with Roberto Mancini became public before the game.

Once Mark was informed, I informed him staff, and then consequently, the players themselves were informed, which is why Kolo Toure and Shay Given were asked to attend a meeting post game.

No dressing room revolt at Eastlands

"There is no player rebellion. They have been going about their business as usual today, most professionally led by Roberto and Brian Kidd.

"The decision to end Mark's tenure was a unanimous decision by the owner, chairman, myself and the board. As was the decision to appoint Roberto.

Contingency plans kicked in after Spurs defeat

"Like any other business, we have plans, we have targets, but we also have to have contingencies. The contingencies are for when those plans and targets are not being met. The decision, to seriously look at options, managerially, was taken just three weeks ago. This was following the Hull City game.

"It's important to know, and I'd like to stress, that Roberto was only offered the job after the Spurs game. We negotiated on Thursday, we finalised an agreement on Friday, and he was not in the stadium on Saturday, as was falsely reported."

I just want to say there is nothing more for me to add to this process. It's been a difficult three days, and it's a process of change that we've all had to go through.

"There is nothing further to add to this subject."

Goal.com UK