Manchester City remained quietly confident last night of bringing Mark Hughes to the club despite the threat of an eleventh-hour approach from Chelsea for the Blackburn Rovers manager.

City held talks with Hughes in London last night after the club agreed to meet Blackburn’s demand for £5 million in compensation for the expected departures of the Welshman and his backroom team of Mark Bowen, his No 2, and Eddie Niedzwiecki and Kevin Hitchcock, the former Chelsea goalkeepers.

Hughes has been offered a contract worth £3 million a year by City who, despite being concerned about the prospect of a counter-bid from Chelsea, hope to conclude a deal today with a view to possibly introducing the manager before the media tomorrow.

Whether Hughes’s head would be turned should Chelsea come calling remains to be seen, but sources suggest that he was not distracted by the lingering prospect of an offer from Stamford Bridge during negotiations with City last night.

The treatment of Sven-Göran Eriksson at the hands of Thaksin Shinawatra, the City owner and former Prime Minister of Thailand, is understood to have concerned Hughes, who has emphasised the need for patience as the club seek to re-establish themselves among the elite of English football.

Despite guiding City to a top-ten finish and taking them into the Uefa Cup in his first season, Eriksson was dismissed as manager on Monday, but Hughes has found it hard to resist the lure of the club’s huge fanbase, burgeoning academy and European football, not to mention a transfer budget that would far exceed what he had to work within during his 3½s at Blackburn. Some, though, believe that Hughes would be trading stability for instability by leaving for City.

Should he commit to City, Hughes is expected to approve a move for Jô, the CSKA Moscow and Brazil striker, with the club-record £18 million transfer likely to be ratified in the coming days. The manager has expressed a desire. however, to work on his own list of potential players, rather than on one that has been drawn up by the club in recent weeks.

Whether his list includes Ronaldinho, the Barcelona playmaker, who Thaksin and Garry Cook, the newly appointed executive chairman at City, have been trying to entice to Manchester, remains to be seen. Hughes would almost certainly lodge a bid for David Bentley, the England midfield player, who has improved significantly under Hughes’s guidance at Blackburn.

He would have a fight on his hands, though. Just as Blackburn gave Hughes assurances that there was no need for him to sell their best players, so the club will provide the new manager with the same guarantees and are determined to keep Bentley, who has three years remaining on his contract at Ewood Park. Bentley would probably cost in excess of £12 million, but his admiration for Hughes and his hopes of winning a regular place for England may convince him that his prospects are better served with City.

Blackburn’s recruitment drive to replace Hughes will gather momentum today. Sam Allardyce, the former Bolton Wanderers and Newcastle United manager, is known to be keen on the club, although names such as Dick Advocaat, who guided Zenit St Petersburg to Uefa Cup success last month, Paul Ince, the Milton Keynes Dons manager, Alan Shearer and Mike Newell, the former Blackburn strikers, and Adrian Boothroyd, the Watford manager, have been floated.