What was Hughes thinking?

Just what is Mark Hughes thinking?

Why would anyone in their right mind want to leave a stable English Premier League club such as Blackburn for one with such a tortured and unstable history as Manchester City?

Hughes decision to leave the club he has managed with great distinction over the past four years for one which has just sacked its most successful manager in recent history after just one season is clearly the biggest surprise of the EPL off-season so far.

If Hughes - the former Wales' manager - had announced he was leaving to take charge of Manchester United, the club where he won three FA Cups as a player, that would have been understandable but it's hard to see how leaving Blackburn for Manchester City is a move forward in his career.

The Blue side of Manchester might have a larger supporter base than Blackburn and perhaps be regarded as a 'bigger' club in England's historical pecking order but other than that it is hard to see just why the man known as "Sparky" would be attracted by a move to Eastlands.

After all City is controlled by former Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who so far has shown himself to be totally bereft in his knowledge of the game but all controlling in the manner of Chelsea's powerful Russian owner Roman Abramovich.

Shinwatra's decision to axe former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson after just one season in charge has not gone down well on the success-starved blue half of Manchester and the decision is even more perplexing considering just how much the cool Swede - who is now in charge of the Mexico national team - achieved against the odds in the season just completed.

Somehow Eriksson got a club, which only a few years ago was in the third tier of English Football, into a top ten finish - an even more notable feat considering that City virtually had an entire new team at its disposal at the start of the season and the team needed time to gel.

The City players also showed just what they thought of the decision to axe Eriksson after producing a shameful 8-1 loss to Middlesbrough in the final game of the season once it became obvious that Shinwatra - for reasons still not explained - wanted one of the best managers in the game out of his club after just one season.

Compare that to the support Hughes has enjoyed at Ewood Park over the past four years during which time he steered the club to two FA Cup semi-final appearances as well as two appearances in the UEFA Cup while they only just failed to qualify for another appearance in Europe's second tier competition this season after finishing a more than creditable seventh on the EPL table.

The loss of Hughes is a major setback for Blackburn, who under Hughes', looked one of the few teams capable of taking the fight to the all-conquering 'big four' of United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea on a regular basis.

But now he finds himself in what appears to be a no-win situation at Manchester City.

If he succeeds next year, fans will only say it is because of the groundwork laid by Eriksson this season while if he fails - well history shows there is no club in England capable of self-destructing quite like Manchester City.

Maybe it is the challenge factor that caused Hughes to take one of the toughest jobs in football and if so he will certainly get his wish.

After all - with all due respect to Newcastle, Tottenham, Aston Villa and West Ham - there is no club that made has made underachieving an art-form like Manchester City, a team which for all its support has not won a major trophy for 32 years and has not even appeared in a cup final since 1981.