Hughes in good Kompany

Manchester City manager Mark Hughes believes new recruit Vincent Kompany is "one of the outstanding talents in Europe".

Kompany, who can play either in defence or in midfield, has signed a four-year deal after arriving from Hamburg for an undisclosed fee, believed to be about £6million.

"Vincent is one of the outstanding talents in Europe," Hughes said. "He understands the ambition of the club. He understands where we want to take the club."

The 22-year-old Belgium international could make his debut against West Ham on Sunday at Eastlands providing the paperwork is completed in time.

Apart from being part of the senior squad, Kompany also played for his country in the Olympics and Hughes is delighted to have the player on board.

"We want to be a young, vibrant team with energy and technical ability. He comes into the category of the kind of young player we are trying to attract."

Kompany is likely to be employed in a defensive midfield role as City aim to recover from two defeats early in the season, which exposed their frailties.

They went down 4-2 to Aston Villa at the weekend following the shock first leg defeat by Danish side FC Midtjylland in the UEFA Cup.

Kompany will be expected to tighten things up and Hughes said: "The thing I like about him is his flexibility to play exceptionally well in a number of positions.

"That will help the team as the Premier League is a long hard season and there will be injuries unfortunately."