Football FanCast columnist Alex Dimond hopes that Manchester City new owners are patient with Mark Hughes and don't full into the trap that so many others do.

With the ever-growing influx of money into the modern game, the role of the football club owner has never been under more scrutiny. With massive investment on the line and huge financial rewards to be won, never has the Premiership owner been more determined to see his club be successful.

Unfortunately, however, this has often led to top-flight managers being given an extremely short amount of time to deliver important results, or even seen important aspects of first team management - specifically, player recruitment - delegated to a third party, often one who enjoys more trust with the board than the incumbent manager.

More often than not, such a setup does not end well - as Kevin Keegan and Alan Curbishley will no doubt attest. Coincidentally, the fortunes of the clubs involved in such scenarios rarely improve as their turnover of managers increases.

As a result, particular when it comes to foreign owners, patience and a greater understanding of English football are regularly preached. Mark Hughes, the Manchester City manager and latest employee of a foreign owner, is now often linked with the sack - for no other reason other than the fact that the new Eastlands owners might not appreciate a 5^th place finish the way they perhaps should.

Indeed, after City's resounding 6-0 victory against Portsmouth, the Guardian wrote that the result actually made Hughes even more likely for the sack, as it "foolishly increased expectations."

Fortunately, however, it seems the new City owners are more pragmatic than some of their rivals in the league. As reported in the Daily Telegraph, chairman Sheikh Mansour was full of praise for Mark Hughes, calling him "the best young British manager.''

He also promised to "back his judgment in what players to bring in," adding that "we are building a structure for the future, not just a team of all-stars.''

All this might sound like music to the ears of the former Manchester United striker, but the reality is that a convincing 6-0 win on home turf rarely induces criticism.

Indeed, it might have lulled Sheikh Mansour and his advisors into a false sense of what is required to turn the club into a European powerhouse, exactly as the Guardian suggested.

The statements released by the board after back-to-back defeats against teams like Blackburn and Stoke, as will inevitably occur at some point in the season, will be more telling. Only then will we get a real idea how trigger-happy the consortium are.

In the meantime, however, few would argue that most top-flight owners would be wise to trust their managers, as stability often produces better results in the long run. But it must also be remembered that there are still bad managers in the game, ones that are often more than worthy of their P45.

Sacking them is not impatience, just common sense.

Football is still a results business, and Hughes will still have to prove he can deliver for his new owners. But, after Saturday's result, as long as they don't set the bar too high, you feel he might just be alright.

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