MANCHESTER -- Manuel Pellegrini has again shrugged off reports that Manchester City are preparing a 250 million Euro bid for Barcelona’s Lionel Messi.
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Rumours in Spain suggested the Premier League club were ready to offer a world record sum for the Argentina international, something that was also raised in March.
But City manager Pellegrini has grown wearily accustomed to seeing his club linked with any number of expensive talents he is not trying to sign.
And he cited their supposed interest in goalkeepers Willy Cabellero, Victor Valdes, Iker Casillas and Asmir Begovic in the autumn, none of whom City attempted to buy in the January transfer window.
“It is not a surprise for me to me to hear all different rumours about players that come and go,” Pellegrini said in a news conference. “It is the same thing the whole year. Remember all the goalkeepers that we were bringing here.”
Messi has spent his entire club career at Barcelona, scoring 362 goals and winning the Champions League and La Liga three times each and City, who are conscious of Financial Fair Play rules, are not expected to countenance offers of the size that would be required to recruit a player of his standing.
City’s owners are expected to keep Pellegrini in charge for another year, even if they do not win the Premier League, and he responded to reports that he will stay by insisting he was never worried about his future.
He added: “I didn’t hear any talk about that and I was not thinking about that.”
