AS bewildered as they may be by the sight of their club in the bottom three of the Barclays Premier League, Manchester City’s wealthy Arab owners are not about to press the panic button just yet. Mark Hughes faces a serious battle over the coming months to prove that he is the man to take the club forward next season, but for now Sheikh Mansour and his cohorts appear reassuringly content to trust the manager to steer City away from the embarrassment of a relegation battle.

Hughes has been undermined not only by results – a solitary victory in the past nine Premier League matches – but also by issues in the dressing-room, with Elano and Jo, the Brazilian duo, likely to be sold or loaned out during the January transfer window. It has made for a difficult climate around Eastlands – and, figuratively speaking, in Abu Dhabi, where Sheikh Mansour and Khaldoon Al-Mubarak, the chairman, reside – but the unequivocal message from within the club is that Hughes’s position is not a matter of debate. While this may well change in time, Hughes has been told he can plan for the next run of games – and, just as critically, for the January transfer window – without fears over his job security.

Al-Mubarak is recognised as a principal factor in the sense of calm that, for now at least, surrounds the club. While the takeover in September was fronted by Dr Sulaiman Al-Fahim, whose hysterical pronouncements about future transfer targets caused irritation in Abu Dhabi as well as in the boardrooms of several rival clubs, the Sheikh deliberately sought a calmer figure to install as chairman. Al-Fahim continues to liaise with various agents in the hope of securing more marquee signings to follow that of Robinho from Real Madrid, but the Sheikh prefers to take advice from Al-Mubarak and Simon Pearce, a director, both of whom have expressed faith in Hughes’s abilities and advised that the manager should be given until the end of the season to prove himself.

Nevertheless, with his team having sunk to the relegation zone, Hughes recognises that results must improve quickly, with Hull City, Blackburn Rovers, Portsmouth, Wigan Athletic, Newcastle United and Stoke City their next six opponents in the Premier League. For all the focus that there will be on the club during the January transfer window – with the emphasis on sensible, attainable targets such as Roque Santa Cruz, the Blackburn Rovers forward, rather than Kaka, of AC Milan, who will, in theory, be pursued in future – Hughes knows that getting points on the board will be every bit as important.

“There’s frustration at the moment because everybody wants us to be successful and at the moment it’s not happening as quickly as people would like,” Hughes said yesterday. “That’s because really the expectation is unrealistic in fairness. It’s all about being positive and making sure that we understand where we are and where we want to go. My staff and I know that our methods work and it takes time to change the mentality and the culture of a club, but, when we do, we’ll be successful=2 0over a sustained period. At the moment it’s a little bit indifferent, as we know, but we’ll change it around.”

Part of that process will involve offloading players he regards as not good enough, of which there are many, and those he regards as a negative influence, such as Elano. The Brazil midfield player was left out of the travelling squad for the 2-1 defeat away to West Bromwich Albion on Sunday, having been accused, not for the first time, of failing to pull his weight in training. Jo, the Brazil forward, is another with whom Hughes has lost patience – he did not the make substitutes’ bench at The Hawthorns, having complained of illness on the morning of the game – and is likely to be sent out on loan, possibly to Everton.