Pellegrini: We'll carry on spending

POINTING THE WAY ... Manuel Pellegrini still has reinforcements in his sights

MANUEL PELLEGRINI has hinted his summer spending spree could smash through the £100million barrier.

The Manchester City gaffer has drafted in four huge new signings worth an initial £83.4m combined.

Yet the Chilean is still considering adding a new centre-half to his squad before the transfer window closes on September 2 — although a swoop for Real Madrid’s Pepe has so far been blocked by the Spanish giants.

So it could yet be that Fernandinho, Jesus Navas, Alvaro Negredo and Stevan Jovetic are not the only new faces at the Etihad for the new season.

Pellegrini said: “The club has spent money on important players.

“But you must remember that last year here there was Mario Balotelli and Carlos Tevez, so we had to replace two very good players.

“We have the rest of July and the whole of August to finish the squad completely.

“It’s not absolutely complete but it’s very near to being complete.”

Pellegrini would not comment on reports that Portuguese bad-boy defender Pepe (right) is top of his list of centre-back targets.

City are working on new contracts for Joleon Lescott and Micah Richards in case they fail to land any of the defenders the new manager wants.

He added: “I don’t speak about rumours. I think we have the players we need here.

“I just said we will see what happens but I’m not talking about specific names because it’s not better for us, so I don’t talk about Pepe or any other names.”

City continue their preparations for the new season by playing Sunderland in the final of the Barclays Asia Trophy here today.

The game will be subject to a pitch inspection due to heavy rain in Hong Kong.

But Pellegrini is hoping they will still be in good shape for the start of their league season on Monday, August 19 when City play host to Newcastle at the Etihad.

He said: “It’s important to make a quick start and to win the first league game because, if you lose ground, it is difficult to recover.

“The English Premier League is a different league than what I have worked with before — but I am not concerned about that.

“Of course it is always good to have more time but I hope the team will be prepared.

“I don’t know who will start the final on Saturday — but I’ll try to play all the players and give them a similar number of minutes on the pitch.”