Manchester City boss Sven Goran Eriksson admits they considered moving for Michael Owen.

The Newcastle and England striker was available for about £9m, with wages of £100,000 a week, but Eriksson decided to go for quantity and opted for the relatively unproven Rolando Bianchi and Valeri Bojinov to boost his striking options.

He said: "We thought about Michael but I was a little bit afraid of the money. We had a budget so I couldn't buy Ronaldinho or anything like that."