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Pellegrini’s a dead man walking at Manchester City, but not finished just yet

By on January 5, 2016

Ahead of Manchester City’s League Cup clash with Everton tomorrow, the Sky Blues’ boss Manuel Pellegrini was fielding questions on his job status and the pressure of his job. One recurring question regarded the pressure he’s currently facing at City, even speculating as to whether it is any different than the constant tension at Madrid? Pellegrini should know, as he’s the only man to have held both jobs.

“A lot of things are different,” he said, per The Guardian. “That is why one team is changing its manager every year and at this club it is not the policy of the owners to change immediately when you don’t win a title. I repeat, different projects for each club.

“At least I finished the year [at Real]. I knew from the beginning I was not to continue for the next year.”

The pressure at Madrid is built upon eternal expectations of a constant stream of trophies, a pause in which spelled the end of Pellegrini’s tenure in the Spanish capital in 2009.

At Manchester City, the stress Pellegrini is currently under is less influenced by titles. Instead, it’s the looming threat represented by Pep Guardiola’s potential arrival at the Eithad over the summer. Even if Pellegrini captures the Premier League title in May, the Chilean might already be a dead man walking, which would make his fate resemble that of so many Madrid managers over the years, including Carlo Ancelotti most recently. His contract is nearing its end, expiring at the end of next season, but that is of little matter for cash-rich City when Guardiola could be on the books by June.

“I don’t think my position in the future is linked to titles,” he said. “For me, as a manager, it’s important to win the title because it’s my job. You ask me personally, my way of thinking is that if I have the option to renew here for five years more or to win the title and be sacked, I’d prefer to win the title. For a manager, your work is to win the title, so the other doesn’t matter.”

Pellegrini isn’t the only one at City who wants to prove a point, whether that be for his personal peace of mind or for the purposes of his career, ahead of the uncertainty regarding Guardiola’s impeding overhaul. For instance, Pellegrini today admitted that Yaya Toure is no longer to play every Premier League match due to aging – yet fascinatingly, Toure is the sole City starter to have featured in a Guardiola squad, making the transition potentially compelling for one of the club’s more important starters.

City’s aging back-line will also be looking over their shoulders (Pablo Zabaleta, Bacary Sagna, Gael Clichy, Martin Demichelis, and Aleksandar Kolarov are all above the age of thirty), as will the fringes of their expensively assembled attacking force.

Whether this looming pressure pushes City closer towards recapturing the league title, as they did in Pellegrini’s first season in charge, or is a point for tension within the team is yet to be seen.

Homepage photo credit: Higor Douglas [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.