City chief executive Mackintosh departs following appointment of Hughes

Manchester City have confirmed the departure of highly-rated chief executive Alistair Mackintosh.

The future of Mackintosh had been the subject of intense debate following the arrival of Garry Cook as new executive chairman.

It had been thought Mackintosh may stay on at Eastlands for a little while but having been left out of the negotiations which saw Mark Hughes installed as manager last week, it became clear he had no long-term future.

Many within the City staff will lament the departure of Mackintosh, who has been linked with similar jobs at Fulham and Arsenal, plus Liverpool, whose own chief executive Rick Parry has been under threat from co-owner Tom Hicks.

He has been seen as a pragmatic chief executive, who helped stabilise City's financial position, then helped bring former Thailand prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra to the club.

"I would like to thank Alistair for his decade of service," Cook told City's official website.

"He took us through a period of great change, particularly the move from Maine Road to our home here at the City of Manchester Stadium and goes with our best wishes for the future."

However, the move is seen as an effective completion of his takeover by Thaksin, breaking the major management link from before his arrival 12 months ago.

Cook was a noticeable presence at Hughes' unveiling last week, where he outlined his vision for City under Thaksin's guidance.

As a former senior executive at Nike, Cook has well-placed contacts within the football industry which could yet bring Ronaldinho to Eastlands.

Cook will also work closely with Hughes over other transfer targets which, despite a huge number of rumours, the latest being Real Madrid's Roberto Soldado and Dejan Stankovic of Serie A champions Inter Milan, and have yet to materialise.

Given the likely strength of the opposition, Hughes has little need to worry about bringing in new faces ahead of the UEFA Cup first qualifying round tie in July.

Hughes will learn City's opponents on June 27 and has already organised friendlies in Switzerland against Lucerne and Basel ahead of the two-legged tie, the home clash of which seems certain to be held at Barnsley's Oakwell Stadium as Eastlands is unavailable.