Hughes: City will not be held to ransom

On the eve of the opening of the January transfer window Manchester City manager Mark Hughes has warned that his cash-rich club will not be held to ransom as they attempt to sign some of football's biggest stars.

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The billionaire Eastlands club have been linked with some big name players, including Gianluigi Buffon and Brazilian midfielder Kaka, but Hughes insists the club will not pay well above the going rate.

"We're aware of this assumption about the level of finance that we'll throw at the project in January, but we still have realistic market values," Hughes said.

"There is also an assumption that we will stimulate the market, that the money sloshing around will be from the deals that we have started, but we have to make sure we protect the club as well."

"The deals that we do will have to be good ones, but we are quite happy at the moment. We know that there will be a premium that we will probably have to pay because it's January, and teams don't want to lose their better players. But it will not be to the extent where we are paying hugely over the market value," the Man City boss said.

The Abu Dhabi United Group, headed by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan who is a member of the Abu Dhabi Royal Family, bought City from former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in September and made an immediate impact in the transfer market by signing Robinho from Real Madrid for a UK record of £32.5 million.

The new owners also announced that they expected to establish the club as a member of the Premier League's big four with a series of high-profile signings but a poor start to the season has left City fighting a relegation battle. As a consequence Hughes' position as manager has been under scrutiny, but the Welshman insists he remains positive about the rest of the campaign - if he can make the right signings.

Hughes added: "We have to make sure that the players we want to bring in are good for us in terms of quality and their position in the squad. If we do that I am very positive for the second half of the season.

"It's not an exact science. You have to look at what's out there, what's attainable and the price clubs are asking for.

"There is a budget out there, and we will work within that. The key thing is to make sure the quality we bring in supplements the quality we already have here. I feel that the addition of the right players will give us more consistency in the second half of the season."

According to reports Hughes will be handed somewhere between £40-£60 million to buy reinforcements for his side and a fee of £18million has already been agreed with Blackburn Rovers to take striker Roque Santa Cruz to Eastlands.

Although Rovers manager Sam Allardyce is keen to keep hold of the Paraguay international. "I'm looking to getting him fit and producing the form that he produced last year to get us out of trouble," he said.

"There have been no bids whatsoever for Roque Santa Cruz,'' Allardyce said. "At the moment I'm more focused on getting him fit because I haven't seen him play since I've been here."