The Blues chief spent his first year in charge at Eastlands trying to dampen down the hype that built up around the takeover of the Abu Dhabi United Group, headed by Sheikh Mansour.

However, with an extra summer of transfer activity to strengthen his squad, Hughes realises the improvement should make City contenders to at least push towards the top four.

"People's perceptions about us will be accurate this year," he said.

"If we can get the players we are hoping for we will have more tools to do the job. We didn't have that last year.

"Now we are getting closer to what we need to be to be able to challenge."

Hughes has already brought in Aston Villa's Gareth Barry and Blackburn Rovers' Roque Santa Cruz as he seeks to improve his squad's fortunes.

Meanwhile, the club have confirmed four senior stars have left the club.

Danny Mills, Darius Vassell, Dietmar Hamann and Michael Ball were not offered new contracts by manager Mark Hughes and are now free to take up other offers.