Can Pellegrini bring his Euro magic to Manchester City? (video)
Manuel Pellegrini is seemingly days away from being announced as Man City’s new manager, after a long and protracted saga, in which Roberto Mancini has already been the victim. In City’s world of heightened expectations, coming only second in the league was certainly a disappointment, but Mancini’s continued Champions league failure was a key factor in his departure. Can Pellegrini give the Mancunians a debut knock-out stage appearance?
Man City fans may prickle at this suggestion, as they (perhaps rightly, given their vast outlay) to be in the mix to win every trophy, but Pellegrini comes with a history of getting teams to punch above their weight in Europe, as fans of Villarreal and Malaga will testify to. Unfortunately, even Pellegrini cannot overcome a one-year ban imposed on Malaga by UEFA for their debt situation. It gave him the ideal excuse to leave, even without the looming shadow of the big gig at the Etihad Stadium.
Despite never winning a trophy, he can point to a hugely surprising semi-final appearance in the Champions League with Villarreal. Despite coming up short to Arsenal in that last four encounter, his over-performance in this job landed him a job at Real Madrid, where, like many, he was chewed up and spat out after a solitary season. Here is a video that gives you a flavour of his achievements.
At Malaga, he again defied expectations by getting them a whisker away from the semi-finals. A controversial ‘offside’ goal scored by Borussia Dortmund prevented an even more impressive goodbye present, but if Pellegrini brings his European magic wand with him to Man City, we could be looking at the most expensively-assembled dark horses ever seen in 2013-14. Here’s a video of some of the reasons why he is landing the top job, featuring the man who calls him ‘father’.
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