Manuel Pellegrini slaps £100m price on Raheem Sterling and praises Wayne Rooney

Manuel Pellegrini has launched a scathing attack on the price of English players and insists that it is not up to him if Manchester City fail to field any homegrown player in their squad.

The reigning Champions do not have a single English player in their regular starting eleven with the exception of James Milner, who is in his final year in contract and has refused to sign a new deal to extend his stay.

The Chilean has received a lot of flak for not nurturing new talent and giving them a chance but the manager insists that there are not many good players who can don the City jersey and hand in solid performances such as put in by David Silva day in and day out.

Wayne Rooney is possibly the only player who has the capacity according to the City manager, while the likes of Raheem Sterling have been deemed to be overpriced. City cannot be accused of not trying to rope in more English players, having brought Scott Sinclair and Jack Rodwell to the squad in recent years, although they were unable to get the best out of these talents.

"It is important to have English players but can you sign them?" Pellegrini retorted.

"Can you get [Raheem] Sterling? Maybe if you go to Liverpool with £100m you can. If I want an English player in the position of [David] Silva who is there? Maybe [Wayne] Rooney, but who else?" he added.

Pellegrini also gushed about Milner and his ability to make any position his own but insinuated at reservations about his contract which expires in the summer. Liverpool have previously been linked with a move for the player and failure to tie him down will see City lose a valuable asset who has a been a tireless worker since his move to the club.

"Whatever position I put him in he plays well: at full-back – which is the only place he doesn't like playing – attacking midfield, wide, or as a striker. I used him this season as a forward and the team was scoring three goals a game," he concluded.