The pair have been on the radar of the Eastlands outfit all summer, with their respective clubs, Chelsea and Everton, already turning down several attempts to land their signatures.

Speaking after his side lost the final match of their pre-season tour of South Africa 1-0 against Kaizer Chiefs, Hughes said he is only interested in bringing in players better than those already at the City of Manchester Stadium.

"We're in the market for good players that we think will improve us," he said. "If we can bring them to the club, then we'll be very delighted.

"But a lot of the good players out there are at good clubs and clubs that don't have to do business with us.

"It's a case of saying what's available, what we can bring to the football club to improve. If the only players that are available are players that won't improve us to any great extent, then we go with what we have.

"Because it doesn't make sense to bring players in that are at a same level, we need to bring players in that are at a better level."

Terry has looked like the prime target of Hughes all summer and asked whether the silence over the issue by the England captain had convinced him even further that the player would be interested in a move, he said: "I have no idea.

"John Terry is a player not at the club, who I keep having to answer questions about. We made a bid for a player that was rejected and that's where we stand at this moment in time.

"Irrespective of what his club does or what John does, we can have no influence on that and that's where we are really."

City have already made major inroads in the transfer market this summer, bringing in Roque Santa Cruz, Carlos Tevez, Gareth Barry and Emmanuel Adebayor, the latter pair featuring in today's game against Chiefs in Pretoria.

Following the arrival of those top names, there is also likely to be additional pressure on Hughes to deliverer and he knows the stakes are high.

He continued: "There's been a lot of speculation and debates over a lot of things in connection to Manchester City.

"I've said before, last year expectations were too high for us to fulfil. This year we hope to do better in that respect, we hope to obviously have a squad of players that will compete and do very well.

"Every manager has an expectation on them and I'm no different from any manager in the Premier League or South African football. The pressure is always there to win football matches and we live with that on a daily basis.

"Maybe last year I lived with that more than most, but I'm quite comfortable with that as an expectation. It's something that we deal with quite regularly and it doesn't worry me unduly. It's part and parcel of being a football manager."

Former Arsenal striker Adebayor, one of City's biggest summer signings, made an encouraging start to his career under Hughes, despite the club losing, and linked up impressively at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium alongside the likes of Craig Bellamy and Martin Petrov up front.

The manager said: "I thought Emmanuel was excellent today. For his first game, obviously when you combine a player of his quality and standing in the game, then you expect a certain level of performance and he certainly provided that for us.

"He showed the qualities that we all know he has, which will be invaluable for us this season, so we're absolutely delighted that he's here. He's going to be a huge player for us this season once the team understands the best way to play with him.

"He plays in a way that enables him to get the best out of his team-mates, so we've got an exceptional player. So we're delighted with his performance today and sure we'll be really happy with his performance right through the season."

Youngster Javan Vidal, Richard Dunne and Nedum Onuoha all picked up injuries in the game, but Hughes does not think any of them are too serious.

"Richard Dunne has a little problem with his knee which is consequence of an international at the end of the season that has dragged on and as a result he was finding it uncomfortable today as he was playing.

"There was no point taking chances, so we took him off as a precaution.

"Nedum has nine stitches in a head wound. Javan Vidal had to come off with a badly gashed shin. But he's walking around, so there's no long-term damage."