I have felt that Mark Hughes’ days as Manchester City boss were numbered almost from the off but his crass sacking this afternoon was not how I envisaged his exit.

I had said in a previous article that I felt he would last until November and it did look likely that he would be on his way out around then but a great 3-0 Carling Cup win against Arsenal followed by an even better 2-1 Premier League win against Chelsea in the first week of December appeared to have provided Hughes with more than just a stay of execution.

However, in typical Man City fashion, they followed up the Chelsea win with a 3-3 draw against Bolton and a 3-0 hammering against Tottenham.

Today’s 4-3 win against Sunderland is three points in the bag but nine goals conceded in three games tells you everything you need to know about Manchester City.

I don’t know the ins and outs of everything that goes on at City but letting Richard Dunne go after nine years of fantastic service at the age of just 29 was an almighty gaffe that also lacked class.

This was a man who had stuck by them through thick and thin and had been their Player of the Year for four years running. His reward was to be dumped unceremoniously just when things started to look good for Manchester City and within sight of his testimonial game.

Today, City sacked Mark Hughes and the usual thing to do is at least make it look as though it has come on the back of a string of bad results and that there is no one else lined up, that the Assistant manager will be taking charge for a couple of games until a replacement is found.

Not Manchester City.

Not only has Hughes beaten Arsenal and Chelsea in the last few weeks, he has booked their place in a semi-final for the first time in about 176 years and he even won today’s game, not convincingly, but he won it.

The crassness comes from the fact that his replacement was actually in the ground watching the game.

Roberto Mancini was announced as the new manager mere minutes after the final whistle so Hughes must have known at kick-off that he was already out of a job.

I am not totally surprised that Hughes has gone, I think the job was too big for someone like Hughes, it requires a more experienced manager and someone with a track record of actually winning things and who therefore knows what it takes to win things.

I can’t help thinking however that Mancini is hardly a brilliant replacement.

Time will tell I suppose but if he doesn’t lead City to the promised land of the Champions League then he can still point the finger at the period of the season when Mark Hughes dropped something like 20 points out of a possible 30.

Personally, I think Mancini is already a dead-man-walking too. They have a bigger fish in their targets but due to that bigger fish currently having unfinished business in his current job, he won’t be available until nearer the end of the season.

Still, on a day when United have lost 3-0, it is nice to see the Bitters still have what it takes to grab defeat from the jaws of victory.