Garry Cook reiterated yesterday that Mark Hughes has the backing of Manchester City's owners, although the club's executive chairman stopped short of confirming that the manager would remain in charge if the team are still hovering around the relegation zone at the end of the season.

City are in seventeenth place in the Barclays Premier League after suffering their fifth defeat in eight league matches, at home to Everton on Saturday. Cook expressed confidence that they would finish in the top ten this season, and “ideally [in the] top six”, which is not impossible given that the club are expected to blow a hole in the transfer market next month, but it is clear that their present predicament remains unacceptable, not least to Sheikh Mansour, their billionaire Arab owner.

“Sheikh Mansour made that statement in his mandate some time ago and clearly that mandate still exists - Mark Hughes is our manager,” Cook said. “Did I expect us to be where we are? No. Did Mark? No. But you get back on the training ground and figure it out.”

Asked whether Hughes will be in charge next season if City finish seventeenth this campaign, Cook added: “I don't think that anybody in this club - Khaldoon al-Mubarak [the chairman] and Sheikh Mansour - is having those thoughts at this time and nor should we.

“We can't predict the results and we can't predict the future. What we can predict is that today and for the foreseeable future, Mark Hughes is our manager. What we don't do is sit around worrying about what happens if it goes wrong.”

The poor form of Jô, the Brazil striker who has struggled to make the grade at City since arriving for a projected £19million from CSKA Moscow in the summer, is an example of the dangers inherent in buying players not necessarily sanctioned by the manager, but Cook insisted yesterday that Hughes would have complete control over which players are bought in January and beyond.

“Whatever has happened in the past, and Mark and I talk about this publicly and privately, we are managing the process by which we will look at the playing squad,” Cook said. “We have got a very clear idea of who should be part of that and, more importantly, a very clear plan about how we should go about that. The key message from us is that we have control of what assets will become part of the football club. It's Mark's job.”

Cook refused to rule out the possibility of another “superstar” signing in the Robinho mould - “fans, who are spending their hard-earned money, want to see great stars”, he said - but added that it was important to find the right balance. “Our strategy doesn't just talk about buying the fantasy league XI, it's about balancing that with home-grown talent and young talent that is breaking into the international scene,” he said.