LONDON — The richest club in the world is mired in the Premier League relegation zone almost halfway through the season after only one win in nine games.
This wasn't what the billionaires of Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment had in mind when they bought Manchester City in September for a reported 200 million pounds (C$359.6 million).
The consortium with strong links to the royal family in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates was supposed to lift City into the top five of the Premier League alongside traditional title contenders Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal.
That happens to be where Aston Villa is right now. Randy Lerner, the American businessman who also owns the NFL's Cleveland Browns, is sitting exactly where the Arab billionaires wanted to be.
Maybe they bought the wrong club.
While Lerner's Villa has quietly moved up to third with little sign of slowing down, City has dropped with alarming speed into the relegation zone. Although manager Mark Hughes believes a turnaround is just a game or two away, his team's form doesn't suggest that.
On Sunday, City lost 2-1 to last place West Bromwich Albion, which hadn't won any of its previous nine games. The last time City was in this kind of form at this stage of the campaign, it was relegated eight seasons ago.
That is the sort of statistic that is worrying City fans after a weekend they will want to forget.
Quite apart from seeing their team drop into the bottom three, they saw neighbour Manchester United crown itself the "best team in the world" after winning the Club World Cup in Japan by beating Ecuador's Liga de Quito 1-0 on Wayne Rooney's goal.
City fans also know that, this time last year, their team was fourth in the standings under Sven-Goran Eriksson, despite falling away in the second half of the season to finish ninth.
Under Hughes, despite the acquisition of Brazilian striker Robinho for a British record 32.5 million pounds (C$58.6 million), City has lost six of its last nine league games in a slide into relegation trouble. Amazingly, the sole victory in that spell was an impressive 3-0 triumph over Arsenal.
The results have inevitably led to speculation that Hughes will soon be out of a job.
"You'll be sacked in the morning" the West Brom fans taunted him after Sunday's game.
The man who brought stability and consecutive top-10 finishes to Blackburn before his move to Man City acknowledged that a poor spell of results might bring calls for him to go.
"There has been speculation about my future since the new owners came in, so it is not something that is new to me," Hughes said after the defeat at the Hawthorns.
"Am I confident I will be given the money myself to spend? That is the intention. That is my view and I've had assurances from Sheik Mansour and the chairman. They have been very positive. They understand where we are in our development. They are pragmatic people. They understand things will not happen overnight. Some people expect it to be but they understand that won't happen."
Hughes hopes that the new owners, who bought the club from former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, will have the same foresight as Lerner, who took over Villa in September 2006 after the club finished a poor 16th in the Premier League.
Under Martin O'Neill, considered one of the brightest managers in the league, Villa has climbed steadily during his 2 1/2 years at the club to finish 11th and sixth and now is well placed to challenge for titles. The club from the central English city of Birmingham has not won the league title since 1981, although it followed that up with a European Cup triumph the following season.
While Hughes is not panicking under the threat of relegation and possibly losing his job, O'Neill is not shouting to the world that his team has reached third place and is now one of the leading title contenders.
"I'm delighted absolutely and, at the moment it's nice and if none of the other (leading) teams play for the next three weeks it would be lovely just to hang in there. We've got a distance to go," he said.
"I've said this before and it's probably worth repeating for the final time: I believe that the top four sides are capable of winning five, six, seven games on the trot," O'Neill added. "We find that hard work. Maybe in another four, five years, maybe 10-12 years in another world we might join that group."
O'Neill may be deliberately understating his team's position to take the pressure off his players and try to keep down the fans' and owner's expectations. But it's something the Man City owners and fans should also take into consideration when it comes to judging Hughes.
"At the moment we are hurting somewhat because we are in the bottom three of the Premier League which is not something we anticipated," Hughes said. "Time is something we all need - myself included - but I know the quality of my staff and we will gain results in the future."
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