Manchester City's Robinho

MANCHESTER, England (AP)

Amid speculation that he has at least £100 million (US$146 million; €104 million) to spend on new players in the January transfer window, Manchester City manager Mark Hughes says his club will not be pushed into paying more than the market value.

City paid Real Madrid a British record £32.5 million (US$47.5 million; €33.8 million) for Brazilian striker Robinho in late August, within days of being bought up by a United Arab Emirates investment group. That change of ownership made it potentially the world's richest club and there is speculation that Hughes will be able to smash the world transfer record and pay up to 60 million pounds for one player, with effectively no one out of the club's reach.

Various newspapers have speculated that City might try to buy Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, Chelsea defender John Terry, AC Milan's Kaka or Barcelona's Lionel Messi.

Hughes, whose team lies 13th in the Premier League and only two points above the relegation zone, accepts that City now have the revenue to meet most clubs' valuations. But he stresses they won't pay more than they feel a player is worth.

"It's the January window irrespective of whether it's Man City or any other club," he said yesterday as the transfer period opened.

"There always seems to be a premium in January because clubs that have good players don't want to lose them. Invariably you end up paying a little bit more but we have placed a market value on them and we won't go way above what we think the players are worth."

Do business one day

Hughes bought Robinho near the end of the transfer window in August and hopes to do business a lot earlier this time.

"Ideally, I would prefer that if we can," he said. "If the right deal has to be made in the last seconds of the window, then so be it but, ideally, that's not what we want.

We've got targets that we think will improve the team and the squad and we're going to pursue them if we can. It's not easy doing business in the January window but we'll try our best to get good players here."