With Kevin De Bruyne’s club record £54 million (Dh305m) transfer all but sealed, Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini claims he will not look for excuses if his team fall short in their pursuit of silverware this season.
De Bruyne could be unveiled as a City player at Saturday’s home game against Watford after Wolfsburg sporting director Klaus Allofs admitted the Belgian’s move is close to completion.
De Bruyne, 24, was left out of the Wolfsburg squad last night as they beat Schalke 3-0 but was in the stands at the Volkswagen Arena signing autographs and posing for pictures with fans.
Allofs told Sky: “It’s all about a few small details. It could be that we reach an agreement today or tomorrow. De Bruyne is off to Manchester City. I explained at the press conference that we had begun talks, those talks have progressed. Now only minor issues remain.”
Attacking midfielder De Bruyne is set to sign a five-year contract and the fee will eclipse the previous club record of £49m (Dh277m) paid to Liverpool for Raheem Sterling earlier in the summer.
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City have made a blistering start in the Premier League, winning their first three games in impressive fashion to quickly establish themselves as title favourites. They have acted decisively after last season’s runners-up finish to Chelsea and expectations are rising.
Pellegrini said: “Last season we had some (Financial Fair Play) restrictions but I didn’t give any excuse for not winning the title.
“This team must try to win titles every year. It’s not so easy because you have strong teams here in the Premier League and you have strong teams in the Champions League, but we must try to do it. The best way to at least try is to have a good squad. That’s what we are trying to do now and we will finish on Tuesday when the transfer window is closed.
“After that you need to know how to play in the way we are doing. It’s very important to have a good performance as individual players and a good performance as a team. So, with more players or without more players, I never had excuses about not winning titles.”
City can today increase their run of league wins, stretching back to last season, to a club record 10.
