Mark Hughes: Everyone of United's players understands what the club is about...I don't think City have that yet

What better way to ignite a Manchester derby than with a Sparky. Mark Hughes, once of United but more recently City, thinks the team he started to build before Roberto Mancini took over might now have the measure of their Manchester neighbours.

He questions Mancini's 'autocratic' style and suggests it might not necessarily have helped matters in the mess that is the latest Carlos Tevez affair. A situation he says would never have arisen had he still been in charge.

Crossing the divide: Mark Hughes was a playing legend for United and joined City as manager in 2008 before being replaced 22 months ago

But does he consider City capable of matching United, stride for stride, in what promises to be a fascinating Barclays Premier League title race? 'Without a shadow of a doubt,' he says.

'City have incredible depth. In Europe, in the Champions League, I don't think they can get to where they want to be either this season or the next. Because you have to build that knowledge and United improved year on year by playing in the competition.

'But in the Premier League it can happen much more quickly. They have players who understand the Premier League. They have foreign players who have been there for a few seasons; top players like Vincent Kompany and Nigel de Jong. They understand what's required. In terms of what they have, it stands comparison with any team in the league.'

No problems: Hughes enjoyed a positive relationship with Carlos Tevez during their time together at City

Hughes is holding court in a smart Italian restaurant in Mayfair, and giving his first proper interview since leaving Fulham in the summer.

He explains what seemed a strange decision and why he would like to return to football the moment the right challenge presents itself.

To do so, he has even been improving his Spanish, while those who would hope to assist him in a new role have been studying other languages to increase the options of Team Hughes.

He also reflects on his time at City, articulating his thoughts on the man who succeeded him as well as the Argentina striker he chose to defend over that recent touchline controversy in Munich. He does share an adviser with Tevez but he thinks it must be difficult for any player to operate under Mancini's strict regime.

First, though, he looks forward rather than back, to what promises to be a momentous encounter at Old Trafford on Sunday.

If he can see a significant difference between the teams, it is something in United that might not yet exist at the Etihad Stadium: the mentality of the team, a collective spirit that has provided the foundation on which United's success has been built under Sir Alex Ferguson.

'Whether or not the group at City, as a whole, work as diligently and with the same mantra as United, I don't know,' he says. 'I'd suggest maybe not.

'Every Manchester United player understands what United is about. The players understand it is a privilege to play for United. They show the club that deference.

'I'm not sure the group of players at City understand that yet. A lot of people have come together very quickly. At United there has been continuity, with the manager, with the success they have had. It gives them a different dynamic.'

My way or the highway: Hughes describes his successor Roberto Mancini as an autocrat

So how does he feel about the man City brought in to replace him 22 months ago? 'I don't know the guy personally,' he says. 'But looking at him from the outside, he comes across as autocratic. It's either his way or the highway and I think it's more difficult to be like that in the modern age with modern footballers.

'You have to understand that your decisions can have an impact on players. I'm not sure he indulges players, tries to get to know them or understand them. I'm not sure he's that type of manager.

'To be honest, there's not a wrong or right way of doing things and, at the end of the day, it comes down to results.

'He looks very focused and very driven in terms of what he gets from his players. But will they all love him when he leaves? I would think probably not. And only time will tell if the potential of the group he has is realised.'

But what about Tevez? In the television studio that night Hughes took the opposing view to Graeme Souness, who condemned the City striker for allegedly refusing to come on as a second-half substitute against Bayern Munich.

'You judge people on how you find them, and the relationship you have with them, and during the time I had him as a player he was fantastic,' says Hughes.

Happy days: Hughes takes over at Eastlands in 2008

'He wasn't fit, and perhaps if he had been I might still be in a job there. But Carlos as a guy was fine.

'We were in South Africa when he first trained with us and straight away you saw his quality in terms of what he could add to the team. You could see he was a world-class footballer and I was absolutely delighted that I was getting the chance to work with him.

'It surprises me now, the issue he has. I guess these things happen in football. He is strong-willed. But one of the reasons he left United was because he wanted to play more often. He wasn't playing regularly. He's a guy who has come through life the hard way and there is still this genuine desire to play week in, week out.

'I never saw him as volatile. I can't think of one incident where there were flashpoints with Carlos. That's not to say it wouldn't have happened. Actually, I take that back because it would never have happened under my watch.

'If you have that (autocratic) style of management then the likelihood of having clashes with players is, on the law of averages, going to be more prevalent than managers who try to get the best out of players doing it the other way.

'Roberto is in a position where he can simply take the player out of the equation. He can stop using them. But at a lesser level you cannot just write off players because you might need them the next week.'

Best of enemies: Hughes misses his rivalry with United boss Sir Alex Ferguson

While there is a hint of bitterness - he says he was 'devastated' to lose his job because it was an opportunity to prove that another British manager beyond Ferguson could succeed at the highest level - Hughes still reflects on his time at City with satisfaction.

It was insane at times, his one meeting with Sheik Mansour was particularly memorable, but he says people are now enjoying 'the gain' from his 'pain'. That he laid those first important bricks and was part of 'a unique moment in City's history'.

His greatest disappointment, however, is the feeling that he allowed himself to become 'compromised'.

'I compromised myself by allowing things to happen that I was not comfortable with,' he says.

'I was trying to buy into the City thing and the approach, trying to move the club forward, but there were certain things I wasn't comfortable with and I allowed them to happen under my watch.

'It really came down to Brian Marwood's role (football administration officer). The way it was sold to me was that I was still in charge of football things. But I'm presented with this dotted line, shown all sorts of charts and I thought, "What the hell's all this?" I have an understanding of business and business models. But sometimes, really, it's about your relationships with people; that's the strength of your football club.

New era: Hughes talks to City Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak following the takeover by Sheik Mansour

'Bringing in all these business people and business consultants to tell people what to do, and how to structure their club, wasn't right. But it was my own fault because I allowed it to happen. At the time I just wanted the club to succeed and you could see that the train was going in the right direction.'

Did he see his dismissal coming? 'You got an inkling because people weren't around,' he says with a smile. 'People were going away on trips. I was thinking, "Where is everybody? Where's the press officer?" She wasn't around. On the day of the Sunderland game, people were phoning me up and saying I was going to be sacked after the game.

'The fact that I still took the game is also what I'm talking about in terms of compromising myself.'

That one meeting with Sheik Mansour was memorable for the fact that he conducted the entire conversation with an olive stone in his mouth - 'I thought it would be rude to spit it out but I'm sure he thought I had some kind of speech impediment,' he says - while Arabian stallions were being paraded around them.

He saw it coming: Hughes waves farewell to the City fans after his final match in charge in December 2009

But he enjoyed the public jousts he had with Ferguson and even admitted to finding that 'Welcome to Manchester' poster which so incensed his former manager 'quite funny'.

'I was at United, two years in Barcelona aside, from when I was 14 to 31,' he says. 'But people forget where City were. I was forever being asked how we were going to attract players when we were a mid-table team.

'We had to fight, and the fact is as soon as he sees you as a threat your relationship with Alex changes. But I probably get on better with him now than I ever have. As a player I was just happy he picked me.'

Hughes seemed happy at Fulham. Until, that is, he rejected the opportunity to extend his contract and left in June.

It was thought he was doing so because he had another job lined up. Then, when that job did not materialise, the decision to leave Craven Cottage was seen as something of a disaster.

Hughes would like to put the record straight. 'The assumption that I was jumping ship because I had another job to jump into was wrong,' he says.

'That was not the case because it was never there for me. People assumed I was hoping to get the Aston Villa job but that was never the case.

'I simply felt my ambition for where I wanted to take the club was not being matched. Historically, Fulham were a club who were happy to be in the Premier League and that was their ambition. But it was not my ambition for them.

'Conversations I was having about players I wanted to bring in were not going well. I read that as them maybe not wanting to keep Fulham in the top half of the Premier League.

False smile: Fulham Chairman Mohamed Al Fayed welcomes Hughes to Craven Cottage but the relationship didn't last long

'There was the date of June 1 (when his contract needed to be renewed) and the closer it got, the less inclined I was to sign it because it would have meant me committing further than the one year I had left.

'I had real concerns about the age of certain players and I came to the conclusion that it would be better just to shake hands and walk away. Fulham were probably a bit too honest with me. They were saying, "We know exactly what you're about, Mark, but really we are just quite happy to stay in the Premier League".'

But Hughes says he will be back. 'I regret not being in a job at this time of year,' he says. 'That's the animal I am.

'I am comfortable with the decision I made and I am fortunate to be in a position where I can just walk away. I said when I left Man City that I didn't want to compromise myself in terms of decisions that I made.

'I'm a manager and that's what I feel I should be doing. I shouldn't be in the house cleaning the kitchen floor.'

Presumably he'll put his mop down come 1.30pm on Sunday.