Timing is everything in football and as Manchester City’s delirious supporters celebrated their biggest win in the Barclays Premier League yesterday, there was no better moment for Sheikh Mansour to spell out his vision for a club whose fortunes have been transformed almost overnight.

Sheikh Mansour will complete his £200 million takeover tomorrow, but even that news was overshadowed by a 6-0 thrashing of Portsmouth at the City of Manchester Stadium that offered a tantalising glimpse of what could lie ahead at a club intent on shedding the tag of underachievers.

Khaldoon al-Mubarak, who will replace Thaksin Shinawatra as chairman, watched Mark Hughes’s team record their fifth win in six matches and when he reports back to Sheikh Mansour, his friend and boss, in Abu Dhabi today, it will be with a glowing assessment of a manager whom the owner said yesterday is “absolutely integral to our plans”.

Sheikh Mansour has kept a low profile since news of his attempts to buy City from Thaksin, the former Prime Minister of Thailand, emerged a little more than three weeks ago, but breaking his silence in a two-page statement, the Abu Dhabi royal emphasised that he is a “long-term investor” and claimed that Hughes would be given time and money with which to turn the club into a leading force in European football.

Gone were the outlandish claims associated with Dr Sulaiman al-Fahim, the Middle Eastern businessman who fronted the takeover, and the unrealistic targets laid out by Thaksin last year. “We are lucky to have someone [in Hughes] who we believe is the best young British manager,” Sheikh Mansour said. “We are ambitious for the club, but not unreasonably so, and we understand it takes time to build a team capable of sustaining a presence in the top four of the Premier League and winning European honours.”

While Sheikh Mansour said that he hoped that the £34.2 million capture of Robinho from Real Madrid offered a “signal of our very real intent”, he was also keen to emphasise their desire to invest in the club’s youth system. “We know a little of the history at City and while we want to bring in the best players in the world, we also want to see the academy continue to develop talent and give Mark Hughes the chance to bring home-grown players into the team,” he said. “We consider Mark Hughes to be one of the prime assets of the club. We will back his judgment in what players to bring in and look forward to working more closely with him in the future. We are building a structure for the future, not just a team of all-stars.” Sheikh Mansour, who could attend City’s match at home to Liverpool in 13 days’ time, also emphasised the importance of consulting with the fans. “Khaldoon and I have agreed that we will not be making any more announcements for a while as we really now need to sit down with the manager, executive chairman [Garry Cook] and key staff and put together plans that will, over time, get the club to where we want it to be,” he said.

“As part of that, we will absolutely spend time listening to the fans about what you think about the future of the club. We are very aware that without the fans there would not be a club to buy and your voice will be heard by the organisation at the highest level.”

Hughes, who met al-Mubarak on Friday, said: “They know it’s not going to happen overnight. They are very realistic in that respect and do things in a calm and assured way and that’s the way it has to be. They know that continuity enables you to sustain success.”