On a Saturday evening in December, 2009, the recently enriched Manchester City announced they had sacked their manager Mark Hughes. Hughes had been appointed before the new owners had taken over in September 2008 and in keeping with their determination to be measured and restrained in everything they did, he had been given time. But then he ran out of time. “Sheikh Mansour and the board felt that there was no evidence that the situation would fundamentally change,” Manchester City explained in a statement. “This is a particularly difficult announcement given the personal investment over the past 15 months on…

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