MANCHESTER, England (AFP) — Sir Alex Ferguson has slammed neighbours Manchester City for the way in which they handled the sacking of his former player Mark Hughes this week.

City have been widely pilloried in the football community for the manner in which the highly-respected Hughes was forced to take control of his team in last Saturday’s 4-3 victory over Sunderland before being sacked and replaced by Italian Roberto Mancini immediately after the game.

Now the Manchester United manager, an influential figure at the League Managers’ Association, has added his voice to the general condemnation of City’s behaviour while praising the actions of Sunderland manager Steve Bruce, a former team-mate of Hughes’ at United in the 1990s.

“That is one thing I do not need to discuss, it is so obvious, that kind of behaviour is unacceptable,” said Ferguson when asked for his reaction to Hughes’ treatment last Saturday.

“It doesn’t matter whether you have lost 20 games or, as in the case of Mark Hughes, two games. There is a way to treat people, surely.

“But Christmas time seems to bring the worst out of directors. Sitting there throughout the game, knowing something was going on, must have been terrible. Brucey felt that himself, the rumour mill was working overtime.

“Mark had obviously realised it was his last game, it must have been a terrible position to be in. I think everyone was shocked, obviously. I spoke to Mark the next day and I could tell he was suffering.

“I was talking to him about Steve Bruce and Brucey was fantastic. In the game of football you have disputes with managers from time to time, as they had had, but what Steve Bruce did was defend an old team-mate.

“They were part of our team in ’94 that stood by each other and fought like the devil together and what Steve Bruce said was, That’s my team mate you’re talking about.’

“I was really proud of Steve Bruce and I know Mark appreciated that. He really appreciated that kind of loyalty, which he didn’t get at City, from an old team mate.”

Ferguson, who had traded veiled jibes on occasion with Hughes this season, also backed the Welshman to bounce back from his 18-month City experience.

“Of course he will,” said Ferguson. “He did a great job with Wales, which is not an easy job, a great job with Blackburn and he was the right man for Manchester City at the time.”