The future of Manchester City manager Mark Hughes is on the agenda on Friday morning. particularly with reports linking Guus Hiddink with the Eastlands job.

A 3-0 defeat to Tottenham has called into question City's top-four ambitions and Ian Herbert, writing in the Independent, sifts through the wreckage of a very damaging defeat at White Hart Lane.

In 'Tantrums show trouble ahead as Hughes fights for survival'. Herbert considers the petulant reaction by Robinho and what defeat means for City.

"You know it's been a bad night when Gareth Barry, hardly the most demonstrative of Manchester City's midfielders, talks about the players being "at each other's throats" in the dressing room. But that's how it was, deep inside White Hart Lane late on Wednesday night, after the feeble and anaemic display which asked more questions about the value of Mark Hughes' investments than any other game in his 18 months at Manchester City.

"The players were not the only ones pointing a finger. Hughes kept the door shut for a very long time after a 3-0 defeat which was characterised by the parlous non-performances of Emmanuel Adebayor and Robinho, who headed straight down the tunnel after his substitution, and the length of the post-mortem meant that he did not join Harry Redknapp for the customary post-match drink. Redknapp did not take that as a slight. Everyone in the Tottenham camp could see what the defeat meant to City, a club aspiring to go toe-to-toe with Spurs for a top-four spot, and falling so far short.

"Though rumours that Robinho did not join the City players on the coach home and instead headed straight out into London are wide of the mark, Hughes is left to ponder where the fighters in his ranks really are. The thought of Barry taking anyone by the throat seems far-fetched, based on the role he is assuming in the City midfield. The elegance and tackling which have made him an England regular have been on less consistent display than at Aston Villa and he has not looked the leader that made him a pre-season candidate for the captaincy. The honesty Barry displayed when emerging from the dressing room would have served City well on the pitch. "It's not just the defeat it's the way we've lost – we've lost a lot of pride," he admitted."