Unless there’s a dramatic turnaround in events (and maybe based on recent history we should give him the benefit of the doubt), it’s highly likely Manuel Pellegrini won’t be Manchester City manager next season.
– #Quiz360: WIN Dh250 to spend at Legends Sports Bar
There is still a Champions League second leg at Barcelona and Chelsea can theoretically be caught, but the odds are firmly stacked against the Chilean adding to his Premier League title last season.
Criticisms of his management are far and wide but what is curious that for all the 61-year-old’s apparent faults this term, another significant individual within the club continues to evade any kind of scrutiny.
Txiki Begiristain was brought to the Etihad Stadium in 2012 as director of football – with Ferran Soriano as chief executive – amid much fanfare, and rightfully so.
City had successfully prised away the man who had helped turn Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona into one of the all-time great sides, it was a genuine coup for the club.
The idea was to take the Barcelona model of establishing a football culture and identity based on sustainable success and adapt it to the Premier League.
However, two-and-a-half years down the line, what has actually been achieved?
Appointed in the wake of Roberto Mancini’s frustration with Brian Marwood’s performance in the department, the primary aspect of Begiristain’s job – player recruitment invites serious questioning.
Fernandinho and Martin Demichelis have been solid additions, and Jesus Navas has had some good moments but Alvaro Negredo, Stevan Jovetic, Fernando and Eliaquim Mangala have either been outright failures or are yet meet expectations.
Signing Bacary Sagna on a free from Arsenal can hardly be seen as ingenious and only Frank Lampard is a genuinely impressive manoeuvre in the market, and he won’t be playing after May.
For all the club’s resources, recruitment under Begiristain, especially when held up against Chelsea and Liverpool’s, has been poor.
Demichelis has been more of a stop-gap signing than a genuine top class performer alongside Vincent Kompany at the heart of the defence with the Stefan Savic and Matija Nastasic projects hastily abandoned, while we’re still waiting for Nigel De Jong’s true replacement to be found.
The transition of academy players to the first team, ala Barcelona, has also been non-existent with Jose Pozo’s 105 minutes this season the exception.
A lack of clarity over exactly what Begiristain’s role entails, of course, means he can look to the splendid City Academy and establishment of New York and Melbourne City as a measure of his success so far, but surely his modus operandi is what happens with the first team.
Should Pellegrini depart this summer, Begiristain may well have the defining say as to who should replace him. He needs to choose very wisely.
