Pellegrini lacks medals, but brings nous to City
There were ten minutes remaining at Estadio El Madrigal. Mikel Arteta took one look up and immediately knew his target. The Spaniard delivered a delicious corner, and the towering Duncan Ferguson headed powerfully past Mariano Barbosa. Eruption. Blue shirts, five thousand of them scattered around the dilapidated arena, quickly swarmed over their yellow counterparts. But then drama. Pierluigi Collina had ruled the equaliser out. The Italian official spotted the most ethereal of fouls, and extra-time was off the menu for Everton. Diego Forlán slotted home in stoppage time to confirm Villarreal’s debut campaign in the Champions League proper, and that was that. Now, eight years later, the managers from that evening are about to do battle once more, though, this time on a much more significant scale.
On Friday night, Spanish publication AS confirmed that Manuel Pellegrini, the current Málaga coach, had agreed a contract with Manchester City worth £3.4m annually (£65,000 per week) after several meetings between sporting director Txiki Begiristain and Pellegrini’s agent, Jesus Martínez.
While the timing of the deal is outlandish, less than 24 hours before the existing manager Roberto Mancini would lead his side out for the FA Cup final at Wembley against Wigan Athletic, the overriding feeling among the hierarchy at the Etihad stadium is that the club have failed to build on the Italian’s first two full seasons as boss. After arriving at Eastlands in December 2009, Mancini guided City to fifth place, unable to see off Tottenham in the fight for Champions League football. FA cup success against Stoke City in 2011 resulted in a productive campaign the following year, but it was last season which saw City supporters warm to Mancini – now a vastly popular figure, who will receive indubitable backing from the fans in London this evening. Sergio Agüero’s famous last-minute winner against Queens Park Rangers meant Mancini had won City their first title in 44 years. Victory later today would denote a third trophy in three full seasons, but Mancini’s days appear numbered.
Chairman Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak has sanctioned £280.2m on twenty-one new players under Mancini, a total which the Emirati businessman expected to be enough in order for City to prosper in Europe. But, two consecutive seasons of failure to hurdle the group stages of the Champions League, as well as an inadequate term in the Premier League – at times 15 points behind champions Manchester United – signals a need for change in the eyes of the board, and, Chilean Pellergrini is the man who will be tasked with steering the club to the summit of English and European football.
Turning 60 in September, Pellegrini may well feel this is his last chance at a leading super club. After a decade managing in his homeland, the shrewd tactician travelled north, alongside the South American west coast, to Ecuador, where he lifted the title in his solitary term with LDU Qutio. An eleven-month stay at Argentine side San Lorenzo ended with another title and cup, before Pellergrini continued his growing success with River Plate, winning the 2003 Primera División.
It was a year later that Pellegrini’s career really took off. Spanish side Villarreal brought the promising coach to Europe, providing him with the chance to “develop a project” – something the Santiago-born coach would reveal after five magnificent years with the modest Yellow Submarine. Three years before Pellegrini arrived, the club were preparing for only their second ever year in La Liga, while, the town only has 45,000 inhabitants – less than the Eithad holds, for example. Yet, with the outstanding backing of president Fernando Roig, Pellegrini led the club to 3rd, 7th, 5th, 2nd and 5th. All this working with a shoestring budget, dwarfed by the financial power of both Real Madrid and Barcelona, it was little surprise when Los Merengues tempted the qualified engineer to the Santiago Bernabéu in 2009 – a move that coincided with Florentino Pérez’s return to the club.
“We are going to have a great coach,” Pérez said before Pellegrini’s arrival, but, the truth was, the Chilean was never first choice. Arsène Wenger had rejected the White House for a second time to stay with Arsenal, José Mourinho was only a year into his tenure with Inter Milan and Carlo Ancelotti had been reeled in by Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, leaving AC Milan after eight years. The departures of Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben, against Pellegrini’s wishes – “they were vital players, but they left” – led to the onset of a non-existent relationship between president and manager. The £200m invested in the squad under Pellegrini, including on talents like Kaká, Cristiano Ronaldo, Xabi Alonso and Karim Benzema, brought obvious expectation. Despite a then-record points total in the top-flight (96), Real finished second behind Barcelona (99), though, it was the disastrous cup exits that left Pellegrini in the lurch; a 4-1 aggregate loss to lowly Alcorcón in the Copa del Rey, twinned with an early farewell from Europe against Olympique Lyonnais. Marca, the country’s best-selling newspaper were livid; “Get out!” they screamed after the 2-1 aggregate defeat to the French side.
After his inevitable sacking, Pellegrini defended his reign in Madrid, pointing at the deranged construction of his squad. “It’s no good having an orchestra with the 10 best guitarists if I don’t have a pianist,” he told the Spanish media. “Real Madrid have the best guitarists, but if I ask them to play the piano they won’t be able to do it so well.” He insisted Pérez focused too much on the attack, ignoring certain positions. “I didn’t have a voice, I would have been out even if I had won the league,” argued Pellegrini.
There was talk of him returning to South America shortly after his spell with Real ended, but, the Mexican Football Federation quickly denied the reports linking Pellegrini with the national post. Instead, four months later in November, Pellegrini would find a path back into La Liga. With six defeats in their opening nine league games, leaving the club 19th going into November, Málaga owner Sheikh Abdullah Al Thani fired manager Jesualdo Ferreira, and brought in the excited Pellegrini. “I think I’m capable of turning this situation around,” he said during his unveiling. He was right.
Seven wins in their final eleven La Liga fixtures, inspired by the canny £2.1m capture of Júlio Baptista from Roma in the winter transfer window, ultimately kept Málaga in the division. An eleventh-placed finish represented a fine first season with the Andalucíans. What followed in his first full year in charge was unprecedented. A supermarket spree was how it began, though, unlike at Real, this time Pellegrini was in control. They were his signings. Eight new faces arrived – most notably Ruud Van Nistelrooy (free), Joaquín, (£3.7m), Jérémy Toulalan (£9.7m), Santi Cazorla (£18.5m) and Isco (£5.3m) – as Al Thani splashed out close to fifty million.
“Competing with Real Madrid & Barcelona is unrealistic,” then-general manager Fernando Hierro insisted, “but we want to finish as high as we can.” Put simply, Málaga were anticipating a challenge for the top four positions. Pellegrini made sure they got it, though, only in the final game. A tense last day in which Málaga had to beat Sporting de Gijón, if Atlético Madrid won at Villarreal, to cement a place in Europe’s premier club competition, would end in history. Cazorla swung in a corner just after half-time and Venezuelan forward Salomón Rondón rose highest to head it back the other way, into the far corner. Once the final whistle blew, the parties began. Yet so did the problems.
Al-Thani’s investment came to a halt; the cash dried up. Outstanding debts, which still exist today, helped forced a u-turn on policy. Out, ironically, went Cazorla & Rondón – the former for a “gift” fee to Arsenal – and in January this year Nacho Monreal joined his teammate in moving to north London.
Understandably, the assumption was that Málaga would drop down the table. Yet, despite everything – the sales, players and coaching staff not being paid in almost three months, the “worry” over the club’s future and the suspension from European competition for next season – the side are only two points worse off than at this stage last year, and, the Spaniards thrived in Europe, missing out on a Champions League semi-final only because of an officiating disaster. “It felt like there was no referee on the pitch,” Pellegrini bemoaned. Toulalan, one of only four players who remain from that spending spree two years back, will reportedly join Atlético at the end of the campaign, and both the midfielder’s agent, as well as Pellegrini’s have criticised the club. “It looks like a fairy tale, you can’t go on with a slow leak,” the manager’s representative said in April. “You can’t promise things that you then don’t deliver.”
Now it has gone too far. Pellegrini, a mundane human, yet imaginative coach, is on his way to Manchester. He will arrive in England able to speak the language, an asset, while not always imperative as Mauricio Pochettino has proven at Southampton, it’s certainly beneficial. Excitingly he brings with him a style based on finesse and flair. “My philosophy is based on having players with a good technical ability,” he said during his spell with Villarreal – where, in 2006, he led the humble side to the semi-finals of the Champions League. “Efficient and creative. My teams think more about building than destroying.”
Differences with Mancini are obvious. The Italian has never made it past the quarter-finals in the Champions League – with Inter or City – while Pellegrini has managed it with much more restricted clubs. While Mancini might throw on a Aleksandar Kolarov or a Javi García when leading in games, Pellegrini may introduce another attacker. He confesses defensive football “bores him”. When Eliseu put the club 2-1 up in Dortmund last month, off came Baptista, on went fellow striker Roque Santa Cruz. An inconceivable maneuver under Mancini you would think.
At Villareal, the emphasis was on a narrow midfield of technicians providing ammunition for deadly finishers. Throughout his stay on Spain’s east coast, Pellegrini’s playmakers included Juan Román Riquelme, Ariel Ibagaza, Robert Pires and Cazorla; gifted footballers who could dictate play. Up top, Forlán (54 goals in 106 league appearances), Giuessepe Rossi (54 in 136) and Nilmar (26 in 85) all blossomed under Pellgrini. With Málaga, the coach has managed to conjure up the best form of Joaquín’s career – the Spanish winger now displaying the sort of performances that saw Valencia give £21m to Real Betis for his services seven years ago.
Form has deteriorated recently at Málaga; five losses in the last eight league games, including the concession of 15 goals in three trips to Real Sociedad, Valencia and then Real Madrid, and, Pelllegrini may not have any noteworthy medals, but he brings nous, practicality and style to City. He may well be bringing the brilliant 21-year old midfield schemer Isco with him, too. Once a rugged centre-back who achieved nearly 30 caps for his country, Pellegrini is now a manager widely respected across the football world. Rodolfo Arruabarrena, his former left-back at Villarreal, describes Pellegrini as “the best in the world”, while Pep Guardiola labels him “an extraordinary coach”.
And so, eight years after their last meeting at the Madrigal, Pellegrini and Moyes are set for a reunion. The Manchester rivalry is entering a new era, and in the ‘Engineer’, City will have an intelligent mastermind, an outstanding coach and a down-to-earth man who deserves to lift major trophies. The Etihad provides the perfect platform.
