Vieira: City face Sterling competition

Patrick Vieira believes Manchester City will face plenty of competition in the race to sign Raheem Sterling from Liverpool.

Vieira, who is City's football development executive, is a big admirer of the England international, for whom last season's Premier League runners-up have already had two bids rejected.

The second of those was for £40m and it is thought Liverpool are holding out for a fee of £50m for a player who still has two years left on his Anfield contract but has refused to discuss a new deal which would reportedly earn him in excess of £100,000 a week.

Despite the large figures involved, Vieira believes there will be further interest in Sterling, who scored 11 goals in 52 appearances for the Reds last season.

"I think if you go down and ask 10 people what they think about him, I think nine would give you a positive answer," said Vieira.

"I would be part of the nine people because he's shown how good he is, how well he's been doing at Liverpool.

"If he is in the market, not just City would be interested in him.

"But that's the first team and I'm not part of the first team, I work with the academy so I'm just giving you my opinion."

Vieira also believes the loss of the Premier League title to Chelsea last season should be viewed in context.

"The target of the football club is to always try to win the Premier League title," he told ESPN FC at an event in New York for Western Union's PASS initiative.. "You only have one team who can win it.

"Chelsea won it last year, so that means United, City, Arsenal and Liverpool were not going to be happy, but I think what is important is to analyse the situation and analyse what the club has achieved in the past four years.

"If you analyse the last four years, it's been more successful than anything else. Don't forget that four or five years ago, the club wasn't at that level.

"I think the journey of the club so far has been fantastic and you just have to look at the players we have in our squad."