Former Manchester City fullback Pablo Zabaleta admits the players thought the likes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo would be joining the club.

Zabaleta joined City in 2008 only days before Abu Dhabi United Group took over the club.

The new ownership wasted no time before moving for big-money targets, tabling almost £40million for Real Madrid forward Robinho and £21m for Brazil striker Jo.

West Ham veteran Zabaleta recalled La Nacion: "Ten days after my arrival, the purchase of the club by the people of Abu Dhabi is executed.

"Four days later, they invest £40 million for Robinho and there I said, 'Now what do I do? I'm going to last six months here.'

"We took it a bit as a joke and...in the locker room we started putting 'Messi', ' Cristiano Ronaldo '. We were s******* ourselves."