Manuel Pellegrini prepares to buy the world’s biggest players from Manchester City

Manuel Pellegrini has hinted that Manchester City are ready to compete for the world’s biggest players this summer.

Restrictions imposed by UEFA for breaching Financial Fair Play rules have meant that since the Chilean took over in 2013, City have been unable to go for the real top names.

While Chelsea signed Cesc Fabregas and Diego Costa and Manchester United broke the British transfer record for Angel di Maria, Pellegrini has had to settle for the likes of Eliaquim Mangala and Wilfried Bony.

All City’s marquee players Yaya Toure, David Silva and Sergio Aguero were signed by predecessor Roberto Mancini.

“If you ask if City are a club that can buy the world’s top players, the answer is yes,” says Pellegrini

“These last two years, it was impossible to do it because of the restrictions of FFP but we will see in the future.

“To grow as a club you must grow in everything and maybe one of the ways that you grow is to buy very important players.”

Pellegrini denies that City will have to win the Champions League to become a truly big club.

“That is not the only parameter you use to analyse a club,” he says.

“Real Madrid went over 30 years without winning a Champions League. Alex Ferguson with Manchester United won two titles in 27 years. Barcelona’s first Champions League was 1992.

“You must grow in every department the development of young players and the strength of the first-team squad, for example.

“It’s not simply about winning the Champions League.”

Ahead of going to the Nou Camp 2-1 down this week, Pellegrini denies that he made a mistake when he fielded two strikers in the home defeat by Barcelona.

“I didn’t think I made a mistake,” he insists. “We played with two strikers. Barcelona played with three strikers.

“It’s much better to win at home and that is why I thought we had to take risks to score goals.

“But we played very badly for the first 25 minutes at the Etihad, and made a mistake that gave them the first goal. You cannot make mistakes against Barcelona.”