Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has revealed that one of the reasons for signing Owen Hargreaves on a free transfer was to co-operate with FIFA's Financial Fair Play rules.
The 30-year-old midfielder was out of contract with rivals Manchester United over the summer after an injury-plagued four years at Old Trafford.
The Italian also said that he was interested in signing Real Madrid midfielder Gago and Roma's Daniele De Rossi before settling on Hargreaves.
"[Gago] is a player who we liked a lot. We couldn't spend any more money also for the question of Financial Fair Play," he said.
"De Rossi is one of the best midfielders in the world. But I don't believe that he will ever leave Roma. So in midfield we signed Hargreaves who was out of contract."
Hargreaves was recently left out of City's Champions League squad, although he could be included in a revised version should they qualify for the latter stages of the tournament.
Jack Prescott
