Now that the worst kept secret of the summer has finally been shared with the world, as Manchester City officially confirmed that Chilean coach Manuel Pellegrini had signed a three year contract with the club, what changes are likely to be introduced to the team and will he be able to deliver the success that is craved for by the owners on both the domestic and European fronts?
The challenge has been set for the newest coach at the Etihad stadium; win a trophy or pack your bags. In response to a second placed finish and yet another disastrous Champions League campaign, Roberto Mancini was given his marching orders despite guiding the club to their greatest ever moment just a year earlier. Anyone in charge here will not be afforded the luxury of living on past glory and Pellegrini has already experienced the ruthless nature of a club with even bigger expectations than City.
At the end of the 2009/2010 season he was sacked by Spanish giants Real Madrid after only one year in charge. Unfortunately for him, the record of 96 points that the team achieved that season was not enough to surpass the mighty Barcelona, who managed 99, and a second place finish was deemed a failure.
Since then he has done an excellent job at Malaga, who themselves had high ambitions after Sheikh Abdullah Al Thani became president of the club in 2010. The Qatari investor spent a lot of money on signing players such as Santi Cazorla, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Joaquin, Salomon Rondon and others and was rewarded when they finished fourth at the conclusion of the 2011/2012 season and qualified for the Champions League. If they hadn’t conceded two injury time goals in the quarter final of this competition against Borussia Dortmund, who knows how far they may have gone. Even with this setback they still did incredibly well to get so far, although they will not enter European competition this coming season because of a ban imposed on them for outstanding debts.
The situation at Man City will be quite different and Pellegrini will have little time to get a collection of talented stars, including some new signings, to play cohesively as a team. The only thing that may be in his favour is that his main rivals are in a similar position, as both David Moyes and Jose Mourinho are new to the job at Manchester United and Chelsea respectively. Will ‘the engineer’ be afforded the luxury of delivering anything other than the league or Champions League, or is his tenure at the club going to be dictated by these two competitions?