Manchester City boss Mark Hughes is excited with the arrival of former Espanyol fullback Pablo Zabaleta.

He told City's website: "Pablo is acknowledged as one of the bright young talents in European football who has also been pushing to get into the full Argentinean squad. He's an Olympic gold medal winner, which is a great bonus for him.

"I saw him a few times when he was at Espanyol , and I wanted to nick him at what I thought would be a decent price on a few occasions. He was always a bit out of my range in my previous job, but I was glad that we could revisit that one here.

"I'm delighted that we brought him here, people are going to see that he's a high-energy player, he has a real desire to win and he's very dynamic. We had a brief conversation when he signed, he is really excited about coming to the Premier League. This league's attraction really stimulates players from abroad like Pablo, and I'm sure that we will see that in his play."