New Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has said that he is looking forward to working with the club's English players and hopes to use them as the base of his team.
Guardiola is renowned for creating teams out of homegrown talents, doing so with La Masia graduates at Barcelona and German players at Bayern Munich.
He hinted that inflated price tags may not make that possible at the Etihad Stadium, but is hoping to "help" the club's English players, particularly Raheem Sterling, who has been criticised for his performances for club and country since making a £50m move from Liverpool last summer.
"I hear the last 10 days what happened, especially with Sterling," Guardiola told reporters in his first press conference.
"Of course he has a little problem that the money they paid is always in the mind of the people but I am curious, I am looking forward to working with him to try to help him, to show him how good a player he is and not just him, Joe Hart and the other English players.
"In Barcelona the basis was Catalan, Spanish players, in Bayern Munich the basis was (German players) and I would like to work with English players here but they are so expensive, more than the other players around the world."
Guardiola's first competitive match as City boss sees him host Sunderland on the opening day of the Premier League season.
Barney Corkhill
