Mark Hughes has
insisted that he will not be provoked into a public war of words
with Sir Alex
Ferguson, despite the Manchester
United manager's increasingly hostile comments about the
way Manchester
City have set about trying to infiltrate the Premier
League's top four.
Ferguson has questioned whether Hughes has overspent on his
transfer targets, describing their summer business as "crazy", as
well as alleging that players had moved to City only because of the
vast salaries on offer and that Emmanuel Adebayor had secretly
tried to engineer a move to Old Trafford on the eve of joining the
Abu Dhabi United Group's revolution. More provocatively, Ferguson
has talked of City being guilty of "arrogance" and being a "small
club with a small mentality".
Hughes is bemused by the aggressive nature of those remarks but,
despite being one of the few ex-United players who is daring enough
to criticise his former manager, he made it clear tonight that he
wanted to avoid their relationship descending into the kind of open
warfare that, at times, has symbolised Ferguson's rivalry with the
likes of Arsène Wenger and, increasingly, Rafael Benítez.
"That's how we conduct ourselves at this club," Hughes said,
when he was asked whether he would try to rise above it. "Sometimes
we have to respond because people make these comments, but we don't
try to cultivate these situations."
Hughes explained he had "great respect" for Ferguson but it was
also clear he was irritated by the accusation that he had overspent
by paying a total £94m on Adebayor, Kolo Touré, Gareth Barry,
Carlos Tevez and Roque Santa Cruz.
"I've said before that our valuation could well be different
from other clubs. It's obviously different to Sir Alex's valuation
but, to us, these players are invaluable. We feel we have done good
deals on every player we have bought."
Ferguson has been particularly aggrieved by City putting up a
billboard in Manchester city centre showing Tevez, the former
United striker, and the words Welcome to Manchester. The poster,
Hughes admitted, was designed to poke fun but he was surprised that
Ferguson reacted with such hostility. "I think he has got a little
upset about our poster campaign – although to call it a campaign
would be wrong because there is only one. It was just a bit of fun
between the two sets of supportersand I think they have taken it in
that manner."
Hughes does not intend to take the criticism personally,
pointing out it was worse last season when he faced
constantspeculation about his job but he has warned his players
they will need to prepare themselves for more of the same. "All the
expectation will be on us," he said, "but we have come to deal with
that. We have to live up to those expectations."
