This summer is a great opportunity for Pellegrini to really get the fans on his side again. Life at City started well for Manuel Pellegrini after winning the league and the Capital One Cup in his first season, but then after a disappointing season without any silverware, things turned grey at the Etihad and fans started to get onto Pellegrini’s back, which has led to people questioning his future, but it seems that he will be the manager for one more season.
There’s a lot of work to be done to this ageing, weakening squad. Last season players came in; that to me felt useless and didn’t benefit us at all. Other teams around us strengthened – Chelsea bought Diego Costa from Atletico Madrid for €32m and has been a success – while we bought players like Fernando and Sagna, who haven’t been a help this season.
Many people blamed Financial Fair Play for our lack of initiative last summer, but we have so many dead wood players who we can sell, such as Jovetic, Nasri, and Fernando. Our squad has an average age of nearly 29, and now without FFP restrictions we can sort this out.
As expected many rumours are flying around as to who we will sign this summer, and quite frankly I am excited as are many Blues. Players’ names are flying around include Gareth Bale, Isco, Paul Pogba, Kevin De Bruyne and many more.
With Pellegrini’s new system he has applied to the team in recent games, with playing with just one striker, I think we don’t need to have four strikers, and it wouldn’t hurt for us to sell Jovetic and bring in a midfielder. A perfect situation would be to use Jovetic and cash to try and edge Pogba away from Juvetus, who will, if he signs, be likely to replace Yaya Toure whose agent hasn’t kept any secrets about Yaya being unhappy and wanting to depart from Manchester City. With 10 years separating Paul Pogba and Yaya Toure, a swap of similar players would be daft to ignore.
My favourite non City player is Isco; he is a wonderful player to watch and once again is young. Pellegrini and Isco used to be good colleagues when they worked together at Malaga, and when Pellegrini eventually made his move to Manchester a lot of people expected Isco to do the same, before he was persuaded by his father to join the Spanish giants Real Madrid, and despite him playing regularly in the capital, some still believe he would take a move to Eastlands in the summer.
Many people feel that we need to improve our defence after a fairly shocking season defensively, with Mangala yet to find his feet, and Kompany suffering from injury and inconsistency, which has lost us many points. People need to realise that outside of the club we have Karim Rekik and Jason Denayer, who have been fantastic for their clubs PSV and Celtic winning the league for both teams. A poor start to the season left Clichy’s position is jeopardy, with many people expecting Monaco’s Kurzawa or Wolfsburg’s Rodriguez to come in, which for a short term replacement doesn’t seem a bad shout, with Angelino improving with every game for the EDS. It wouldn’t surprise me if he gets a first team call up soon.
Ever since the rule about English players has kicked in, many people see City struggling with only a few first team players who fit the criteria, players like Hart, Milner, Clichy and on-loan Micah Richards. But with Milner rumoured to be off to either the Emirates or Anfield this summer there are questions going around as to who we will sign to fill the criteria; names such as Barkley, Sterling and Cresswell are the once flooding the newspapers as of late.
So with no restrictions and Pellegrini allowed to spend to try and revive his future at Manchester City, he will need to spend big to get the players that will win titles and get the fans on his side once more. So Blues, forget about this trophyless season and expect a rebuild and fresh squad next season.
