MANCHESTER -- Manuel Pellegrini says every manager in the world would love to have Lionel Messi in his team -- but shrugged off reports that Barcelona's record scorer is set to join Manchester City.
The 2014 Premier League champions have been linked with the Argentina regularly over the years and on Friday reports emerged that they are willing to pay the four-time World Player of the Year £800,000 a week.
Messi, who has scored 420 goals for Barcelona, signed a new contract at the Camp Nou last year and Pellegrini gave no indication that he is headed for the Etihad Stadium.
"I don't talk about rumours," he said. "I think every manager in the world would like Lionel Messi."
Former Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola, who worked with City's chief executive Txiki Begiristain and Ferran Soriano in Catalonia, has again been linked with Pellegrini's position.
Guardiola's current deal with Bayern Munich expires next summer but while Pellegrini is under contract with City until 2017, he has become familiar with speculation that the double Champions League winner will replace him.
He added: "I don't talk about rumours. It is a rumour we have had for the last two-and-a-half years."
City have suffered back-to-back defeats this week, losing to Liverpool and Juventus, but Pellegrini called for some perspective by pointing out that he they had guaranteed a place in the last 16 of the Champions League with two games to go.
"If you ask me I prefer to be qualified in this death group [group of death] and we qualified two games before," he added.