I’ll take Fulham further than Roy Hodgson did, says Mark Hughes

Mark my words: new Fulham manager Mark Hughes was officially unveiled today and is confident the club can establish themselves in the top half of the Premier League
11 April 2012

Mark Hughes today insisted Fulham must target a Premier League top 10 finish after he was officially unveiled as Roy Hodgson's successor.

The 46-year-old signed a two-year contract at Craven Cottage and immediately targetted an improvement on Fulham's superb 2009-10 season under Hodgson.

After reaching the Europa League Final and finishing 12th in the League, expectations are high but Hughes revealed he is relishing the prospect of returning to management and establishing the Cottagers as a permanent fixture in the top half of the table.

"We want to make Fulham a top 10 club on a regular basis and we want to build on what happened last season rather than it becoming just a stand-out season," he said. "We don't have the distraction of European football and can concentrate our minds. With the quality I have already seen then I can say we can finish better than 12th.

"The job Roy has done was magnificent. He maximised the results with the group he had. I don't think it is a situation where my abilities won't enable them to do disimilar things to what Roy did. The way I work will be benefitted by the system that is already in place."

Hughes returns to work seven months after being sacked by Manchester City and replaced with Roberto Mancini but the former Wales and Blackburn manager insists he has nothing to prove.

"I was disappointed because I felt I was doing a good job," he said. "No one could have done as good a job as I did. I felt we were on track with expectations but they changed their minds and I wasn't part of their plans. They moved on and I moved on."

Hughes revealed he is unlikely to make a move for City striker Craig Bellamy but issued a hands-off warning to Arsenal over their pursuit of Mark Schwarzer.

"We are not in the business of allowing our better players to leave and Mark comes into that category," he said.

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