Manuel Pellegrini hints at big English signing for Man City
Pellegrini is confident UEFA's transfer spending restrictions on City, imposed for breaches in their financial fair play rules, will be lifted this summer with the club on course to break even.
And that will allow them to make bids for players like Raheem Sterling, Ross Barkley or Jack Wilshere while Juventus midfielder Paul Pogba and Wolfburg's Kevin De Bruyne are also on their radar.
City were restricted to spending a net £49m in each of the two transfer windows and had to keep their annual wage bill to £205m. That denied Pellegrini the chance to buy the sort of game-changing player he feels City need to keep pace with Europe's other major clubs and make a belated impact on the Champions League.
"Big teams need to sign big players. It is very difficult to do it every year but you must do it every two years. You must try always to improve your squad," he said.
"I'm not just talking about City. You see Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United, Chelsea and Bayern Munich - they all do it. It is important to have big names.
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We do need English players, we need good players
Manuel Pellegrini
"We do need English players, we need good players, so it is important after the season has finished to think about what we are going to do.
"Next season we won't have any restrictions so we will be in the same position that all the other English clubs.
"You have so many strong teams here in England and in Champions League, you cannot allow them to keep the advantage every year; having less players to put in your squad or spending less money. We spend money, of course we always spend money, but they have spent more [in the last year]."
Frank Lampard will leave for the MLS at the end of the season while the futures of James Milner, Yaya Toure, Edin Dzeko, Stevan Jovetic and Aleksander Kolarov are all uncertain.
Pellegrini's immediate priority however is to secure a victory against Crystal Palace tonight to leapfrog Arsenal and Manchester United, whose wins on Saturday left fourth-placed City outside of the top two for the first time since November.
Catching leaders Chelsea remains the target but all of a sudden securing qualification for the Champions League is not as certain as it once seemed for City who have won only four of their last 10 League games.
Pellegrini added: "If we want to finish champions we cannot drop any more points. It is easy to say but not easy to do. We face eight cup finals. If we can't win the Premier League then we must finish second."
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