Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini has insisted that the £55m transfer fee paid for Kevin De Bruyne will be long forgotten by the end of the season.

The fee paid to Wolfsburg for the 24-year-old attacking midfielder eclipsed the £49m the club shelled out for England winger Raheem Sterling.

"Maybe at the beginning everyone will talk about the price. At the end it's part of the game, of the player, the team to demonstrate why we brought him here," the Premier League Manager of the Month for August told reporters at his pre-match press conference.

"There can be very cheap players that play very well and maybe expensive players, they don't do so well.

"When I started with Raheem Sterling, within two or three games, he demonstrated why we brought him here. I am sure with Kevin De Bruyne, at the end of the season no-one will remember how much we paid for him."

Belgium international De Bruyne is in line to make his City debut when they take on Crystal Palace on Saturday.