Stephen Ireland has warned Manchester City teammates not to try to take on manager Mark Hughes.

Robinho is the latest of City's Samba stars to fall foul of Hughes, after storming out of the squad's Tenerife training camp without permission and flying back to Brazil to be with his family.

His compatriots, midfielder Elano and striker Jo, have also clashed with the boss, the former for criticising the City chief for not picking him and the latter for being out on the town when he was supposedly ill.

They have been fined by City for their breaches of club discipline and Ireland said: "The gaffer's a great man and he's involved in every area of the club and developing it.

"It's really important he stays here and I think he'll get it right."