That Manuel Pellegrini is on his way to London and expected to arrive on Monday for an interview at West Ham United is massive and for the first time in months I’m excited.
There is no doubt that the former Manchester City boss – and architect of same of the most beautiful football you could wish to see – may just become the next manager of the club.
If he does it will be a massive breakthrough in the structure of this club.
And it will stop once and for all the unpleasantness which has been seeping out since David Moyes, not unnaturally I guess, got the hump at being ditched.
If Pellegrini does get the gig it will have been the fans who forced the situation on West Ham United’s under siege board in general and David Sullivan in particular.
But he too – if he pulls this off – can take massive credit too for:
No 1; Listening to the fans
and
No 2: Making it happen
Ok this piece may be premature – many a slip between cup and lip etc – but Rafa Benitez is in the frame too and whatever anyone may think of Sullivan – he is nobody’s fool.
He has taken more flak this season than many chairman take in a lifetime and it is unthinkable to believe that he would go onto the official website making it clear he will have somebody in place by next week if he weren’t certain.
When he makes it clear that person will be experienced in the Premier League and Europe failure to land him will make him more disliked than ever and I for one don’t see him risking that.
As we go into the first weekend of the summer this should be a time for hope and optimism – a time to hold our fire and simply wait and see.
The next round will be about whether the new manager will be backed with the sort of cash he will require. Can we really believe that a man of Pellegrini’s stature would risk his reputation were that not the case.
And remember too that he left Real Madrid, joined a Spanish West Ham equivalent in Malaga, led them to their highest ever La Liga placing and into the Champions League.
For me, he’s the perfect man and a gentleman into the bargain who will represent a club, that has been under the cosh daily, very well indeed.
He’s also very good with the media and God, how badly does West Ham need some decent press right now.
Exciting times.
COYI
Let’s hope he is given the funds and left alone to build a squad capable of competing. Be nice to see some good football, everyone is beatable you just need a manager with a different game plan every week who gets the best out of the players. What a change from the trophy less,respect the point, be happy with a nil nil every week managers we’ve recently had.
I’ve got everything crossed that we make this happen. The sticking point may be his reported £18 million a year salary but you have to speculate to accumulate. COYI
perfectly happy with this if rafa isn’t possible.
the man himself bored me to tears when he was manager at city but I could always give the press conferences a swerve. Hopefully it’s the football that would be exciting.
happy to read this type of article, give credit where its due! if this happens i hope every West Ham shows the necessary gratitude to the board for listening and acting. I know its not been perfect, but this is a massive move in the right direction.
If it happens it’s the most positive thing to have happened at West Ham for what seems forever . The board must back it with serious cash though , otherwise it’ll be a wasted effort.
Perfect chance for Sullivan to redeem himself . Pelligrini will have his own ideas on recruitment and the board would be obliged to listen . The question is , will they ?
Will wait and see if it happens and how it works out
Sorry to my fellow site visitiors to go on about this – just read that Carvalhal’s term as Swansea manager is over following a meeting between him and the board – why could Sullivan have not done the same with Moyes before rushing out for a new manager?
You are right to point it out. On the other hand, we are now in danger of becoming another Swansea, or Watford, constantly swapping foreign managers, in the hope of finding the next Pochettino, and ending up relegated in the process.
Lets hope the fans are also prepared to take the blame.lol
If he comes then I will support him to the end because he is our manager, but he is not the fix.
The real deal is not what foreign manager we get, but wether we can provide the squad to make his appointent the right one. Only the squad makes a top manager, not the funny foreign name. Will £80 million be enough? I mean enough to stop him getting us relegated. We shall see. I’m prepared to back him even when things start to go wrong. I wonder if the people celebrating right now would do the same. I think they will be the first to turn 180 degrees against him.
The other issue is how we will keep hold of players like Arnie who was totally loyal to Moyes for re-inventing his game? How many weeks can we keep Lanzini while we are waiting for a new manager? He will have been approached already while we have been managerless.
Don’t think one foreign name fixes everything. It’s just the start of yet another beginning for the club, which we could well have done without.
Sullivan may be nobody’s fool but he shouldn’t have said that a top class manager will be in place next week. He thought Rafa was joining once before but he gave us a last minute swerve to go to Madrid…. unless. of course, the top class manager has already signed.
Seen it all before. Won’t be losing any sleep waiting for this appointment. Have been waiting to go to the “ next level” since 1958. So far, all this has been is relegation & promotion. “The West Ham Way” in management appointments seems to be to throw around high profile names, getting everyone excited, & then announcing someone who is of much lower profile than was expected. And in any case, foreign managers don’t necessarily guarantee anything special. I will wait & see what happens, & then be critical of the management when it all goes wrong again. Moyes was very badly treated. I didn’t want him but I acknowledge that he had a major effect on Arnautovic & got us to 13th place – something seemingly impossible back in mid season. Whoever the next manager is , he will have to get his head round the bad treatment he will get if he doesn’t live up to expectations. Still, he can always walk away with a few million in compensation !
Give ‘em the old razzle dazzle, razzle dazzle ‘em. ‘We left no stone unturned in our pursuit for our no. 1 target, Claudio Ranieri’ 😬
So, it could be Pellegrini, Benitez, or even Ranieri?
If Villa beat Fulham in the promotion play-off, I’d be keen to seen Jokanovic offered the job.
I would go with that. At least he has coached in the nitty gritty of the real world. He could also bring a couple of decent and cheap players.
I would go with that. At least he has coached in the nitty gritty of the real world. He could also bring a couple of decent and cheap players.
Wow spooky. It came out twice. So miracles can happen Wow.
What a bizarre piece of pseudo-journalism.
Take out the parentheses: “There is no doubt that the former Manchester City boss… may just become the next manager”.
There is no doubt that he may? Seriously, what?
“And it will stop once and for all the unpleasantness which has been seeping out”… as if the arrival of one man can change everything the fans hold against the board right now! Dream on…
“it is unthinkable to believe that he would go onto the official website making it clear he will have somebody in place by next week if he weren’t certain.” – or it is entirely true to form. Where is the DOF he promised on the official site in Feb?
Come off it.
This article doesn’t do any favours for the frequent assertion that this site is a mouthpiece for the board.
Oh that old one again. You can agree with board without being a mouthpiece for it. But then I am just a mouthpiece for the website lol.
I’m not saying it is, I’m saying it’s a door left open – and I think I’ve built my case using reasonable arguments rather than empty accusations.
one thing is for sure, pellegrini won’t have the players he had there at city at West Ham. I don’t like the fans take credit line either. Anyway let’s see how he does. One thing I will say is that I hope I get that feeling back about West Ham like I used to, as were just becoming now like everyone else..the identity seems to have evaporated really.
Hammerone-pretty much agree. You say we are becoming like everybody else. My issue is that we are not even as good as quite a few teams who are regularly doing better than us. Obviously I am relieved we have survived but the fact we fell behind Watford, Bournemouth, Brighton, Newcastle& barely matched Huddersfield for most of the season is a disgrace. That really has to change.