Man City´s Hughes stands his ground in Lescott row

Manchester City manager Mark Hughes has refused to back down in his growing war of words with Everton counterpart David Moyes over the attempted signing of England defender Joleon Lescott.

All the indications are that City, now one of the wealthiest clubs in the Premier League, will return with an improved bid next week.

City have failed with three official offers for Lescott, earning the contempt of Moyes in the process with the Everton boss launching a vitriolic verbal attack on Hughes on the eve of Saturday?s season openers.

But Hughes, speaking after City had won 2-0 away to Blackburn Rovers with goals from Emmanuel Adebayor and Stephen Ireland, was unrepentant.

“It wasn’t a surprise seeing David’s comments,” Hughes told reporters here at Ewood Park.

“He feels a little bit aggrieved at the situation, you always are when a club comes and tries to acquire your better players.

“But all we’re trying to do is conduct our business in the right way through the proper channels. Sometimes trying to bring a player to a club runs its course and you walk away.

“But maybe at the moment the situation is fluid and there’s a chance Everton will change their minds. It’s not finished yet as we understand the situation.”

Sources indicate that City are still optimistic that they will add Lescott to their near 100 million pounds pre-season spending, possibly in time for Saturday’s home game with Wolves and there were times against Blackburn that the team’s potential defensive shortcomings were evident.

However, City were ultimately comfortable winners with Hughes picking out the 25 million pounds ex-Arsenal forward Emmanuel Adebayor for special praise.

“I thought he was excellent,” said Hughes.

“The goal helped him, settled him down, but his general play, his attitude to working hard and working for the team showed his great qualities.

“It was important we made something of a statement,” the Welshman added after a convincing success against his former club at Ewood Park.

“A lot of people were looking at what was going to happen to City, wondering how events on the field would unfold and we’re delighted to have had a positive afternoon.

“I’m sure there are some people who do want us to fail, but just as many want us to succeed as well because we’re hopefully trying to break into that top tier of English football and that’s very difficult to do because the top four are some of the top clubs in world football.”

Hughes added: “We understand that it’s going to be a long journey and we’ve been a bit bemused at times at the strength of some of the comments we hear because all we’re trying to do is make our club better.”

Adebayor struck in the third minute, leaving Blackburn with an even greater challenge, but with poor finishing from Benni McCarthy and Jason Roberts to blame, along with a solid performance from City keeper Shay Given, they struggled to find an equaliser.

“If you’re peppering the opposition goal as much as we were in the first-half – we had 15 shots, six on target all saved by Shay Given – then you know if you get those again you’ll convert one or two of those into a goal,” said Rovers manager Sam Allardyce.

However, for long spells of the game, it was not immediately evident that City, with a squad assembled for around 200 million pounds, were so much more superior to their hosts.

Former champions Rovers were once regarded as City are now when the late Jack Walker was pouring his fortune into his hometown club and Allardyce said: “We’ve been on this sort of playing field ever since the Premier League came into being.

“The big ones have always had more money than the smaller ones and it just gets bigger now with the wealth of the world coming into it.”