Defeats for both Liverpool and Manchester United would normally be all over the papers and they are but these days there is another club seeking the limelight.

Mark Hughes' departure from Manchester City - rather in the style of Martin Jol's leaving of Spurs - is the big story. We knew it would happen on Saturday morning but developments continue.

In comes Roberto Mancini and it seems not everyone is happy. Look who's reported to be the refusenik in chief. Why it's none other than Craig Bellamy.

The News of the World leads with the Bellamy revolt. Neil Ashton reports.

OUTRAGED Manchester City stars confronted chief executive Gary Cook over the sacking of Mark Hughes and the £10million appointment of Roberto Mancini.

Craig Bellamy and Shay Given led a six-man delegation after axed Hughes made an emotional dressing speech telling them he was being replaced by the former Inter Milan boss.

Gary Cook and mystery addition to the staff Brian Marwood are the men targeted by City's players ire.

A dressing room source said: "Mark thanked all the lads at the end of the game and told them this would be his last game because Mancini was taking over. There is a huge amount of loyalty towards Mark, the players respect him as a manager and as a person and they can't believe he's being treated as shabbily as this.

"This has been done without any class whatsoever. The players were getting messages on their mobiles telling them what was going on and they decided they had to do something.

"They know who is behind this - Gary Cook and Brian Marwood. Six of them decided they had to say and do something so they went looking for them after the game

Joe Bernstein in the Mail On Sunday also pinpoints Marwood and Cook.

Former Arsenal player Brian Marwood arrived at City as football administrator to be the board's football eyes and ears. A close friend and Nike colleague of Cook, Marwood initially took every opportunity he could to back Hughes, even if he had doubts over some of his signings.

As City failed to qualify for Europe last season, Cook took more flak than Hughes, his comment that AC Milan had 'bottled' the move to release Kaka earning him huge derision.

But the civil war that has exploded in recent weeks following draws against the likes of Hull, Burnley and Fulham and the 3-0 defeat at Spurs means Sheik Mansour had to choose between Cook and Marwood on one side and Hughes and his all-Welsh team of assistants Mark Bowen, Eddie Niedzwiecki and Glyn Hodges on the other.

The Times examine the reasons behind Hughes' removal.

Jonathan Northcroft reports:

When Hughes spent £130m on new players last summer, on top of £120m lavished on signings over the previous two transfer windows, the denizens of Eastlands dreamed of qualifying for the Champions League. More to the point, so did Sheikh Mansour, the Abu Dhabi prince with almost limitless wealth who bankrolls the club, and Khaldoon Al Mubarak, Garry Cook and Brian Marwood, his chief lieutenants at City.

In the end, it was inevitable Hughes would stand or fall on the basis of his recruitment drive and, one of the most thoughtful managers in football, he would have realised it. His last selection decisions involved dropping Robinho, Nigel de Jong and Emmanuel Adebayor, three players he signed for more than £70m, and keeping that trio on the bench as he sent on less glamorous performers as substitutes in yesterday’s 4-3 win over Sunderland. It was a statement: you players have let me down. Managers, though, cannot receive surfeits of sympathy for transfers that go wrong. Transfers are a key part of their job — and a fundamental reason behind 90% of sackings.

Over at the Observer, Paul Wilson develops a similar argument.

Shay Given and Craig Bellamy (a player he did sign for Blackburn) have been excellent, with pinching Gareth Barry from under Liverpool's nose one of the manager's best bits of business. Less successful have been the statement signings, where Hughes has appeared to spend big just because he could. Chasing John Terry seemed a daft idea at the time and was ultimately shown to be so, though even dafter was the idea that Joleon Lescott would do instead. The former Everton defender is simply not a £22m player, as any Goodison regular could have told Hughes, and the City manager moved out a far more reliable and capable organiser of a defence in Richard Dunne, who has been outstanding all season for Aston Villa.