Manchester City: Manuel Pellegrini deserves better

Manchester City are replacing manager Manuel Pellegrini with Pep Guardiola at the end of the season, but does Pellegrini’s record really justify it?

It’s one of those unwritten rules in life. You’ve got a job and if you do it well, you’re probably still going to still be employed until that changes. Of course, it could be that the company runs out of funding but say, hypothetically, that said company is run by a guy personally worth about £20 billion, a sum outright impossible for him to spend in one lifetime short of marrying a few more wives? Well, you’d think your future in the position is pretty secure. Just keep doing what you are doing and watch the dumpster truck full of money reverse up your driveway each month.

Not so for Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini. As we reported yesterday, Pellegrini is due to exit the club at the end of the season making way for Pep Guardiola to take the reins. The way I say it makes it sound like he’s leaving of his own volition, but it’s clearly nothing like that at all. Pellegrini’s being given, for lack of a better word, the heave-ho in favour of one of the best managers in football today.

More from Man City Editorials

That’s understandable in some respects. Manchester City ownership has the resources to pick up someone like Guardiola the way you and I have the resources to pick up a pint of milk from the corner store. And, of course, they should be interested in Pep, as any club would be. His record, which we’ve discussed previously, precedes him. He built Barcelona into the winning machine they are today and has found, no, built success at both domestic and international level in every club he’s been at.

Guardiola’s ability and knack for success aren’t up for debate, but where does this leave Pellegrini? It all seems a little harsh, it’s hard to say he hasn’t done everything you could have asked of him at the helm of Manchester City. Indeed, Pellegrini has the third best winning percentage (63.9%) in Premier League history, which also sits as a club record too (Roberto Mancini, for example, had a win % of 59.1%). He’s brought silverware with him to the Etihad, winning the title and the league cup in 2013/2014. Personal awards were aplenty too, winning Manager of the Month four times in those 2 and a half seasons, including in August of this one. That’s only really the beginning.

Pellegrini’s record is really, quite understated. For example, of the 50 home games under his tenure, Manchester City came out on top in 40 of them, or 80%. Goal differential with Pellegrini in charge is a whopping +132 in the Sky Blues’ favour in that time. The 62 year old Chillean not only won many games, he won the fans hearts with his solid English, soft and humble tone alongside his keen eye for quality on the park.

We could go on all day about the positives of Pellegrini, as with Guardiola. The whole situation is frankly, strange. Both that we’re even having this discussion at all and that we’re having it now, of all times. Tonight’s game against Sunderland in the Premier League will mark Pellegrini’s 100^th in charge at Manchester City. City will be on the hunt for three precious points, the exact number they remain off the top spot of the table. But not only the league, Pellegrini’s City are still in contention for the FA Cup, League Cup and Champions League.

It’s strange, to say the least, that ownership deemed it necessary to discuss Guardiola, the elephant in the room for the better part of the season, now, of all times. Like we’ve talked about before, Manchester City need all this drama about a manager not even joining them until the end of the season like a hole in the head. The focus on Guardiola serves as nothing other than a distraction and a delegitimising of Pellegrini who will continue to lead Citizens, we hope, to further success and glory. A, frankly, stupid decision by the tactless suits atop the food chain is unlikely to torpedo that success, but it certainly doesn’t help.

All the same, there is method to the madness. Mansour et al wish to turn Manchester City into a global football dynasty, on par with some of the biggest names in the game worldwide. Guardiola is a statement of intent, that they are willing to go to any length to make it possible and they aren’t joking around. Just it really, really could have waited.

Doubtless Pellegrini’s record will see interest from clubs all over, reportedly Chelsea among the frontrunners for his services. All we can really hope is that he doesn’t relocate just outside Manchester and switch his sky blue shirt for a red and black one.

Next: Pep Guardiola Chooses Manchester City

Either which way, contrary to media reports and wildfire discussion, Citizens must focus on the tasks at hand and it all starts tonight against Sunderland in Pellegrini’s 100^th game. Let’s make it a good one.