City officials were completely bewildered by talk of a renewed offer for the South American at 4pm as there had been no contact with Blackburn since their last bid at the end of last week.

With City snubbing an £8million approach from Newcastle for England Under-21 midfielder Michael Johnson, the January transfer window closed quietly for the club that attempted to sign Kaka earlier this month.

Whether that allows City to move forward as quickly as Hughes had hoped remains to be seen.

The Welshman has added Wayne Bridge, Craig Bellamy, Nigel de Jong and Shay Given to his squad but, in the aftermath of Saturday's defeat at 10-man Stoke, Hughes admitted he needed a more physical presence in attack.

"Sometimes you need to put the ball into the right areas in the box and things will drop for you," he said.

"At the moment we do not have that option. It is probably as a consequence of a lack of a physical presence that has been highlighted time and time again."

Now Hughes knows he must get to the end of the season without that physical presence, with the exit on loan to Everton of Jo's burly frame only emphasising City's belief the Brazilian has completely failed to impress since his summer arrival from CSKA Moscow.

There was no chance of letting Johnson go though.

The midfielder may have suffered too many injuries recently and there have been negative rumours about his attitude, but City still feel Johnson can recapture the form which saw him likened to Blues legend Colin Bell.

Now Hughes must work with what he has, knowing Given will bring more solidity at the back.

A veteran of World Cup and Champions League combat, Given is clear to feature in City's assault on the UEFA Cup, which restarts against Copenhagen next month.

"I was delighted to get the move tied up because of the UEFA deadline last night," said Given.

"I didn't want to be sat in the stands if City are going to be picking up the UEFA Cup later this season."

Given's arrival has been viewed as bad news for England international Joe Hart, who has been City's number one for the past 18 months.

However, the 32-year-old believes he can offer Hart and City's other young keeper Kasper Schmeichel some valuable advice in the future.

"I have a lot of experience that I can pass on," he said.

"They might not be all that happy to see me but I would like to think that we can all work together and all improve together.

"I rate Joe highly. He has done fantastically well this season but he is still very young in goalkeeping terms."

Blackburn boss Sam Allardyce later insisted that Rovers' precarious position in the Premier League meant that Santa Cruz's preference for a move to Eastlands was not a major consideration.

"This situation doesn't happen very often. More often than not the player probably gets his own way," he told Sky Sports News.

"But in the position we were in it was impossible to agree to that, so we stood firm."

Allardyce added: "The most important thing was keeping a squad together that's a very good and tight-knit squad.

"I wanted to keep that unity and myself and (chairman) John Williams worked so hard in this window to make sure we resisted any bids from anybody.

"We're really pleased that we've managed to do that to help us secure, as quickly as possible, our Premier League status for another season."