text: Manchester City are confident UEFA’s punishment for breaching financial fairplay regulations will be lifted this summer which would allow them to bid for stellar names like Raheem Sterling, Gareth Bale, Kevin de Bruyne and Ross Barkley. City boss Manuel Pellegrini has been hampered over the past year by UEFA restricting them to a net transfer spend of £49million in each window and keeping the club’s overall wage bill to its current level of £205million-a-year. UEFA’s settlement with City published in May stated those penalties would remain in place until the end of the 2015/16 season but the club’s latest financial figures showed drastically-reduced losses of £23million which they feel proves they are now compliant with FPP regulations. Manuel Pellegrini is hoping that the financial restrictions imposed by UEFA for a breach of FFP rules will be lifted at the end of this season . Manchester City have been limited to a net spend of £49million in the last two transfer windows - they spent £25m bringing Wilfried Bony in from Swansea in January . Ahead of Monday night’s trip to Crystal Palace, Pellegrini was certainly talking like a man excited at the prospect of signing 'crack' players this summer. ‘I think that next season we don’t have any restrictions so we will be in the same position that all the other English clubs have,’ said Pellegrini. ‘It’s important. You have so many strong teams here in England and in Champions League, you can not allow them to keep the advantage every year; having less players to put in your squad or spending less money. We spend money, of course we always spend money, but they spent more.’ Manchester United, Barcelona, Liverpool and Arsenal have all paid more in transfer fees in the past 12 months than City who were traditionally Europe’s biggest spenders after the club was taken over by Abu Dhabi owners in 2008. Uefa also ordered City to play with a reduced squad from 25 players to 21 in the Champions League this season and while that restriction has now ended, any time reduction in the penalties on spending and wages is more controversial. Arsenal have paid more in transfer fees than City in the last 12 months, including £30m on Alexis Sanchez . The document published last May by UEFA’s Club Financial Control Body investigative chamber explicitly said City’s financial penalties would run for two seasons at least and there has been no official deviation from that decision. The published statement said at the time: ‘Manchester City agrees to significantly limit spending in the transfer market for the seasons 2014/15 and 2015/16. It means City will have to argue their case with Uefa that as they have been financially compliant over the past year, they deserve to be free of restrictions moving forward. They have successfully argued their case with UEFA before. Last summer they persuaded the governing body to allow them to bypass the normal quota of eight homegrown players as their Champions League squad had been reduced. Eliaquim Mangala joined the champions from Porto for £32m last summer . The reigning Premier League champions have only paid money for Fernando, Willie Caballero, Eliaquim Mangala and Wilfried Bony in the last two transfer windows and that was part-paid by the sales of Javi Garcia and Jack Rodwell. Pellegrini admitted they weren’t in a position to compete with neighbours United for established world stars like Angel di Maria because of the FFP penalties. It has cost City on the pitch. Even if they win their remaining eight Premier League fixtures their points tally will be lower than last season and they crashed out once again at the last-16 stage of the Champions League. Pellegrini and director of football Txiki Begiristain both accept the squad needs replenishing and they want to be in the market for the top available players. Manchester City have been heavily linked with a move for former Chelsea midfielder Kevin de Bruyne . The club also want to be involved in any race for Liverpool contract rebel Raheem Sterling . They have been strongly linked with former Chelsea winger Kevin de Bruyne who has been one of the best players in the Bundesliga with Wolfsburg. And if Liverpool do allow Sterling to leave, City want to be involved in the chase for one of England’s most outstanding talents to help fit in with quotas for homegrown players. ‘If you are the manager or a player of a big tem, you are always open to criticism because everyone expects a high level of performance,’ he said. ‘The major issue with our team always seems to be the money but this season I think we were the team that spent less than any other team. That is the weird thing. ‘For this club trying to be a big team in so few years, maybe we are paying the cost for that.’ Since the transfer penalties were introduced, City have spent £91million on players in the last two windows (Net spend £68million). That compares to Manchester United £145.5million, Liverpool £113million, Arsenal £92.5million and Chelsea £82.6million. Over the same time period Barcelona spent £118.3million on players and Real Madrid £81.2million though they also broke the world transfer record for Gareth Bale the previous summer.
target: Manchester City have been restricted to a net transfer spend of £49m .
  Club's also had to keep overall wage bill to its current level of £205m .
  Punishments imposed by UEFA for breaching Financial Fair Play rules .
  The spending restrictions were set for this season and the next one .
  But City are confident they will be lifted early after their compliance .