Pellegrini: Evolution not revolution!

Nigel Khan is a rare blogger these days but in this one off piece for ClaretandHugh he explains where he stands on the Pellegrini appointment, the ‘next level’ discussion, what he believes the fans need to do now and  more.

The appointment of Manuel Pellegrini as manager of West Ham can only be welcomed by the fans as , he is by far and away the best manager that the owners have ever appointed in their 25 years in football.

Not  only that he is the most decorated manager we have ever employed winning titles in three different countries as well as cups.

Perhaps though we should look to his performance with two of the lesser clubs he managed in Spain to gain real insight as to what may be achievable at West Ham.

Villarreal a small provincial team that when he arrived had only ever been a top flight club for five years. He took them to their highest ever finish and to the quarter finals of the Champions League.

He then spent one season at Real Madrid,  achieved Real’s record points of 96 in a season but still failed to win the title as Barcelona managed three points more.

After being fired as a result (!), he arrived at Malaga, another of the smaller clubs in Spanish top flight,

He stabilised upon arrival and in his first full season took them into the Champions leaguefor the only time in their history. He left them in 2013 to join Manchester City, and this season Malaga were relegated out of top flight.

So his  CV it is without doubt the best we’ve seen for a manager we have hired, and hopefully he can continue his successful career with us.

The Premier League is more competitive than the Spanish league, and though he has the very highest of Premier League experience, it was far easier to walk into Man City with the finances and the existing squad they had and build on that.

West Ham he has an ageing team that  possibly needs a complete overhaul but does not have the money in one transfer window to do so. Without even taking time to analyse our squad we could all say we need new goalkeeper, central defender, central midfielder.

That’s just for starters; other departments need strengthening and the squad basically is very thin with a nucleus of 1^st teamers but as  injuries start to bite we struggle. That will take time to get right, and hopefully he will be afforded the time free from board and fan pressure.

The board have undermined every manager they have had at West Ham at some point, generally when times are not good, but that only heaps more pressure on them when the really need support from their bosses.

The fans were sold a dream and demanding its delivery need to rein in short term expectation and allow Pellegrini at least one full season stress-free of demands for his head if we go 4 or 5 games without winning.

Us fans have played our part in the demanding stress placed on the past two West Ham managers and we perhaps need to stop using the ‘next level’ as that in my opinion is a false reality at the moment.

What we need is stability and a manager who is given time to evolve the team into his image. Evolution of the playing staff not revolution should be the byline to next season.

Wholesale change can sometimes work against you as the players will all be unfamiliar with each other yet I have faith in Pellegrini that if given the constant funds needed and the time to build he will be adding more successes to his impressive CV and West Ham at last will benefit.