Scolari turned down Man City job

Chelsea manager Scolari played down missing out on Robinho

Luiz Felipe Scolari says he turned down an offer to become Manchester City boss before taking over as Chelsea manager.

City, who face Scolari's side on Saturday, were looking for a successor to Sven-Goran Eriksson in the summer and eventually appointed Mark Hughes.

"Yes, they offered it to me. It was a good offer but I was with Portugal and needed time to think," said Scolari.

"They came to Portugal and they talked to me about their ideas for the team in the next three or four years."

Scolari replaced Avram Grant at the Chelsea managerial helm and his appointment was announced while he was in charge of Portugal during Euro 2008.

City were owned by Thaksin Shinawatra at the time but have since been bought by the Abu Dhabi United Group.

They wealth of the new City owners resulted in them audaciously beat Chelsea to the signing of Robinho for £32.4m on transfer deadline day.

606: DEBATE What do you think of Scolari's revelation?

Scolari played down losing out on the Brazil forward and warned City that becoming one of the world's leading club's will be a long-term process.

"He is one more player for Manchester City, nothing different," added Scolari. "Robinho is one player who I said was very good.

"He was in Brazil, then with Real Madrid and now Manchester City. He is a player for Manchester City - it's finished."

Brazilian Scolari also believes that buying the top players will not automatically guarantee success. He stated: "It is not just about buying one or two players to become the best club in England and the world, you need to win.

"It is a project that is not for one or two years but maybe 10 or 15 but it is very good for England and for football that more clubs have projects to get bigger and get into the top 10 in the world.

"Manchester are starting to move towards this."

Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech echoed his manager's thoughts over whether Manchester City can buy their way to glory.

"City can buy whoever they want but it doesn't mean they will have a good team," he commented.

"You need all things together, the alchemy of the team and everything together to become a good team, to win the title and just buying players doesn't guarantee anything."