City, the new mega-rich, ultra-ambitious, ruthless version of the club who have not won a sausage since 1976, have landed their man. Their choice.

No longer can the sheikhs and movers who control the club's destiny cast undermining glances at the manager's office and wonder if the man some previous regime appointed was really on side.

No longer can there be any doubts about targets and progress. A line has been drawn in the Manchester grime. Top four is the requirement, not merely the aim, followed by a Premier League title in 18 months.

Changing the goalposts of their ambition undoubtedly was harsh on Hughes, yet first impressions of Mancini were impressive.

In Mancini, City have not appointed a charismatic and mischievous headline grabber in the mould of Jose Mourinho.

They have appointed a man renowned for his quiet achievement at Inter Milan, where he delivered seven trophies, including three Serie A titles.

A man prepared to work with a ready-made assistant he does not know in respected former City striker Brian Kidd.

A man prepared to select reinforcements for his team by committee involving himself, Kidd, chief executive Garry Cook, football administrator Brian Marwood and chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak.

It is not the way of Matt Busby, Bill Shankly, Brian Clough or even Sir Alex Ferguson, managerial dictators who would not have allowed even as much as the Christmas turkey to be chosen in such a fashion.

But Mancini knows the score in football's new world where billionaire owners demand a say in who and how their team should play.

"In Italy, it is not just the manager who decides on players, it is also the director of football," he said at his first City press conference.

Committee or dictator? It hardly matters. You do not need to be a genius. The tea lady at the City of Manchester stadium could tell you the first requirement.

It is to strengthen a defence which has shipped 27 goals this season. You have to go down to 10th-placed Sunderland with 28 before you find a club who have conceded more.

City's defending from set-pieces, in particular, has been naive and Kolo Toure has proved only what a splendid judge Arsene Wenger is when gauging a player's sell-by-date.

The hasty, over-the-odds purchase of the limited Joleon Lescott has also proved to be questionable while Micah Richards, athletic though he is, shows no signs of maturing tactically to become a top-notch full-back.

Italians are noted for their meticulous organisation and perhaps Mancini can produce solidity where Hughes could not, but the surrendering of cheap goals to inferior opposition must end if City are even to dream realistically of a Champions League spot.

But that presumes Mancini, without any Premier League experience, can deal with the myriad of other issues left by Hughes' departure.

His challenge to £32.5million Robinho was to "write the history" of Manchester City, which was a clever sound bite to try to stir the ambition of a supremely gifted player, but ignored the fact that the Brazilian has shown little desire and no loyalty since landing in the north west.

Banking on Robinho is like, well, banking in general. No longer to be trusted.

And there are more challenges.

Can Mancini's easy charm douse the smouldering fire within Craig Bellamy, arguably City's most effective player this season but who seethes at the sacking of his mentor Hughes?

Can he win over the experienced backbone of the club, which comprises men such as Shay Given, Steven Ireland, Gareth Barry and Pablo Zabaleta?

Can he work with Cook? Can he convince men who appear to believe they know everything that the manager is the most important individual by some distance when it comes to success at a football club? So many questions. As yet too few answers.

If Sheikh Mansour keeps pumping in cash it is inevitable City will eventually reach their goal, but a top-four place by May relies on too many imponderables in a league in which Aston Villa and Tottenham are surging with established teams and canny managers.

Mancini knows that. He is a realist. But he is also a winner. That is what City are banking on.