Pellegrini plays down Bony talk

Manchester City F.C. boss Manuel Pellegrini has played down reports linking the English champions with a January move for Swansea City striker Wilfried Bony.

The Côte d’Ivoire international, 26, joined the Swans from Dutch Eredivisie side Vitesse Arnhem for a club record fee of £12 million in the summer of 2013, and has been worth every penny for the Welsh club.

With Edin Dzeko, Sergio Aguero, and Stevan Jovetic all sidelined due to injury, recent reports in the English media are suggesting is lining up a move to bring in a new striker in the New Year.

However, a move for Bony would require additional changes, as City must comply with the European Financial Fair Play rules.

“I think that is just one of the 20 or 30 names I have read from the beginning of the season until today that we are [reportedly] interested in,” Pellegrini said.

“I don’t think we are going to be too busy in this window.

“We have restrictions about the amount of money and about the number of players we can put in the Champions League, so I don’t think it will be a special transfer window for our team.

“We have the option to do it – we will see in the whole month of January what we are going to do about that – but it is not a major concern.”

Pellegrini will be without Aguero, Dzeko, and Jovetic for City’s New Year’s Day clash at Sunderland, with James Milner likely to start up front for the visitors.

“I think it will be a tough game again,” added Pellegrini. “It is a team that normally we don’t have good results against, when we play against Sunderland.

“Finally this year we won and we hope we will do it also at home. Last year it was one of the postponed games and then when we played it was in a difficult moment, we just drew.

“It is a good team with a good manager, Gustavo Poyet. They know exactly the way they want to play, they have strong players in aerial duels so they are a difficult team.

“But I hope this year we start the new year winning the three points.”

Bournemouth have £1.5m bid for Gray rejected

Birmingham City have rejected Bournemouth’s £1.5 million bid for highly-rated winger Demarai Gray.

The England Under-19 international, formerly of Cadbury Athletic, has bagged four goals in 19 appearances in the Football League Championship this season.