Exclusive: Mark Hughes gives Manchester City warning

Mark Hughes has warned his players that they must not hide behind the crisis that has engulfed Manchester City.

Hughes has spent the week assuring his squad he has full control of all footballing matters after blocking Vedran Corluka's £8m move to Tottenham and Stephen Ireland's proposed £6m switch to Sunderland.

With owner Thaksin Shinawatra refusing to return to Thailand to face corruption charges, which he denies, Blues' future remains uncertain with their chairman unable to get hold of £800million of assets that have been frozen in his homeland.

After being humbled by Danish minnows FC Midtjylland in the UEFA Cup on Thursday, City open their Premier League campaign at Aston Villa today in some disarray.

But Hughes said: "The players won't be allowed to hide behind what's happening off the field. That won't be an option.

"We are going to work extremely hard on the way we approach games and influence games. "In future you will see us dictating the tempo and pace of games.

"We have made huge changes and tried to change them physically and mentality. That will take time. It won't happen overnight, but they have to get up to speed quickly."

Hughes added: "This is a big club and we want to move it forward. That's the reason I came here.

"If it was going to be easy, the job would have been done by someone else. I will turn this place around and get us going in the right direction."