Raheem Sterling doesn’t deserve criticism, says Manuel Pellegrini

The England winger moved from Liverpool to City for £49m in the summer following an acrimonious end to his Anfield career.

There was a time when announcements made by Manchester City relating to their managers meant that a new name would soon be in place at the club, such was the propensity for sacking those in charge.

The announcement at the very least dampens this down, even if not removing it entirely for this is certainly no long term show of faith or commitment on the part of the club.

The Brazil midfielder said: “I think he is a strong character with the right personality”.

And with Raheem Sterling and Jesus Navas stretching the play out wide, City dominated from start to finish.

Forwards Edin Dzeko and Stevan Jovetic have moved to Roma and Inter Milan respectively, while James Milner (Liverpool), Dedryck Boyata (Celtic), Micah Richards (Aston Villa), Matija Nastasic (Schalke) and Alvaro Negredo (Valencia) have also left City.

“The decision was very easy as soon as I knew (that City wanted me)”.

West Bromwich Albion will be looking to start the season on a high under Tony Pulis, who scraped the Hammers out of a relegation fight last season.

“So for me both things: firstly win, because we must win a title. Bony will be very important in that squad”. “It is hard in a big team to be two years without winning a title, but it is also important to trust when you don’t win a title, to trust the work you’re doing”.

But officials say they want to wait to launch the fanzone at the club’s first traditional Saturday afternoon game of the season. The latter is two weeks away from recovering from a hamstring tear suffered on his debut in pre-season.

Given the fee, you would expect that Sterling would be a regular feature in the City side this season, and his end product is going to be under the spotlight.

Ward is a very direct gentleman – and that is what dominates people’s impressions of him – but there are plenty of folk like that in the game, he has played a blinder.

“To see if I can add something different to the team and help them push forward”.

“There are a lot of games so we can do it and if we can bring in players that will improve our squad, we will try to do it”.