Manchester City manager: Liverpool winger is a ‘very important player’‘We will see what we need and which players can come here’

Manuel Pellegrini has admitted Manchester City face a fight to sign Raheem Sterling this summer, with the manager describing the forward as “a very important player” that all elite clubs would want.

Sterling is unhappy at Liverpool and is intent on departing in the close season, though the Merseyside club insist he will see out the final two years of his contract.

Asked if he was interested in the 20-year-old, Pellegrini said: “I don’t talk about rumours. There are a lot of very important players that maybe all the teams want. I don’t know what happens with Sterling or all the other players. We finish the season tomorrow. After that we will see what we need and which players can come here.”

Despite Adam Johnson, Jack Rodwell and Scott Sinclair being young English players who had limited chances at City and who were forced to leave the club Pellegrini insisted that this would not make it harder to attract similar talented footballers in the future.

“No, I don’t think they will not get the chances,” said the Chilean. “It is the responsibility also of the player to demonstrate why they are fighting for a place in the first team. It is not as easy as the more competitive your squad is the more difficult it is for young players.”

This week Sinclair agreed to join Aston Villa, where he had been on loan, permanently, while Johnson and Rodwell joined Sunderland in summer 2012 and 2014 respectively. Yet Pellegrini suggested that in the case of the latter two players these were the correct decisions as they have not been “brilliant” for the Black Cats.

“I can’t regret about decisions we took in the past,” he said. “If I see all those players having brilliant seasons in other teams … I don’t see them playing often every week and being stars in other teams. So I think the decisions we took in the past were with our reasons and in the right way.”

Pellegrini also welcomed the easing of Uefa’s financial fair play rules, the club having had a net spend of £49m and a reduced Champions League squad this season as punishment for breaking the regulations. “I think all the rules about financial fair play must be clear and [Uefa’s president, Michel] Platini is saying we make some changes because maybe they have some problems in the past. Our club when we don’t have any debt with anyone, I don’t see why we have restrictions. It is the thing I am glad to review. I never understand which are the rules of financial fair play.”