Robinho has accused Manchester City of having a small-club mentality and claimed that Mark Hughes, the manager, has been picking his brains over prospective signings. The Brazil striker has been an immediate success at City since the club broke the British transfer record to sign him from Real Madrid for £34.2 million, scoring nine goals in 15 matches.

Robinho is enjoying life in Manchester, but, while he has big ambitions for the club and believes that he can inspire them to greater success, he fears that many of the players are too happy to accept second-best and thinks it may be some time before they can compete with the dominant forces in English football.

“They have excellent players here at Manchester City, but what they lack is the mentality of champions,” the Brazil forward said.

“At Real Madrid, I learnt a will to win. Here they have a good team, but they’re content with just finishing fifth or sixth. For me, you can only be content when you’re champions.

“You need to want to beat Manchester United, to beat Liverpool. They are content with little, just a draw might be good enough [against the best teams]. Maybe I have changed this mentality a bit.

“We beat Arsenal, we played well against Chelsea, although we didn’t win, but the mentality has to change now City have a project to become big. Chelsea two or three years ago were a small side and now they are a big, powerful football club.

“I want to inspire a winning mentality as I’ve learnt in the clubs where I’ve played. I’ve learnt that being second is worthless. I played at Santos, where the supporters want to win every tournament we play in. The same was true at Real and the same with the Brazil national team. City have good players but the mentality of a small side, but if we think bigger, we can be there, too.”

Although Hughes fined Elano a week’s wages last month for speaking out of turn in an interview, the manager is likely to view Robinho’s remarks as constructive criticism.

Robinho revealed that Hughes has asked him whom he thinks City should sign when the transfer window opens next month, with the Brazilian eager to see the defence bolstered. “I would sign Kaká [the AC Milan forward] and Ronaldo [the Brazil striker] if I could choose, but at this moment the team needs to improve the defence. When you build a house, you have to start from the floor. You have to start from the bottom, the defence, and then you fix the attack,” Robinho told Setanta Sports.

“They asked me if there are players to be signed. I have suggested Kléber, the Santos left back, Thiago Silva, who plays centre back for Fluminense and has been playing very well. The coach \ mentioned Luisão, who is Brazilian and plays \ for Benfica. We have good players, but if the club wants to be big, we have to sign more players.”