He’s not arrived yet – there are 24 hours, possibly 48 of discussion to go but already the camps are being erected.
It’s a”brilliant appointment “-” he’s too old”….”why’s he been in China if he’s that good” – “but he won the league and took tiny Malaga to the quarters of the Champions League.”
The central one of course is that despite a £10 million wage packet the sceptics (it’s what they do) claim he won’t be backed with real money.
I find it difficult to believe, however, that having gone this far in their bid to get him, the Chilean won’t have ensured he is being given a transfer budget with which he can work.
He’s done it before and here’s what he’s managed at clubs without massive funds like Realand City (Source Wiki):
O Villareal: In his first season in charge of the club, Villarreal qualified for the UEFA Champions League after finishing third in the league and reached the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup.
The following season, Villarreal reached the semi-finals of the 2005–06 UEFA Champions League, losing to Arsenal. Villarreal eventually finished seventh in La Liga that year.
The following two seasons featured Villarreal finishing in both fifth and second place in the league, the latter being historic for the club. Pellegrini led El Submarino Amarillo to the Champions League knockout stages, where they drew Arsenal once again in the quarter-finals, losing out 4–1 on aggregate.
O Malaga: Appointed in November 2010 the team finished 11th but in his first full season he led them to fourth in the league with a club record-breaking 58 points.
With his guidance, Málaga entered the Champions League qualifiers for the first time in the club’s history. On 10 August 2012, Pellegrini publicly stated his desire to stay at the club despite its ongoing financial problems and the loss of key players such as Santi Cazorla and José Salomón Rondón.[24]
Málaga progressed to latter stages of the Champions League, where they were drawn against Milan, Zenit Saint Petersburg and Anderlecht. The club progressed to the knockout stage unbeaten, winning three and drawing three in the group stage.
Málaga then beat FC Porto 2–1 on aggregate in the round-of-16. They were eliminated by Borussia Dortmund after conceding two stoppage time goals which cost them a semi-final place.
On 22 May 2013, Pellegrini announced he would leave the club at the end of the season with Málaga finishing sixth and excluded from Europe due to Financial Fair Play
This has become for me the most critical 48 hours in years at West Ham – pray he is not allowed to escape Essex and Sullivan’s mansion until the deal is done!
COYI
Wait till he sees what he has inherited at West Ham, compared to the league he will be playing in ( the hardest league in the world ). It’s surely his biggest ever challenge.
I still think he will get around £80 million for players plus what he can get by selling. £60 million has been mentioned but he will need more.
The biggest problem will be how will he know who to sell and who to buy? There is nobody left to ask, not even Tony Henry ( he could always ask David Sullivan I suppose ). He doesn’t have much time.
Good luck to him. He’ll need it.
Arnautovic, Lanzini, Antonio, Reid, Rice, Ogbonna.
I’m sure he might have had a look don’t you?
£50m from the sale of Lanzini covers his wages plus £20m for new players topped up by another £30m from owners
Let’s see if he signs, the club need to spend big for many seasons or get really lucky in the transfer market, we have some good young players but none other than Rice have shown they are capable of stepping up yet, I am hopeful for Holland and maybe Cullen will improve enough to get more game time, I look forward to seeing Fernandes under Pellegrini he could really show his potential. £80 buys two really good players now and that isn’t enough, £200m maybe, but if we are selling Lanzini, learn from the spuds, buy all the players first then sell not the other way around of transfer prices just get hiked up.
£80m lol £80 is a day out at the LS hahaha
Hard to see Pelligrini coming to West Ham without assurances of a decent budget . Hopefully the Dave’s will uphold Thier promises . Agree totally that this is a massive 48hrs
For West Ham . Huge and extremely important .
I remember watching Villarreal on tv 10-12 yrs ago & they were a joy. The town is really small- They had knocked around the lower divisions most of the time. Like most of these ‘rags to riches’ stories (Hoffenheim, Leipzig, Swansea, Bournemouth etc etc) there is usually a rich man behind the fairy tale & I think (given Some of the players they attracted) this must have been true. But no idea on what scale I’m afraid.
Malaga definitely saw an upturn based on some cash splashing. As hinted at by your reference to FFP. I think there was something a bit dodgy about it ( will sound familiar to West Ham fanswho remember 2008-2010) But your stats show he stayed on for a while after the bubble burst & still achieved a reasonable position the next season.
Should add this is not the beginning of a negative rant. Just trying to get an overall picture of the poses & minuses. For what it’s worth my view is cautiously optimistic. What is clear is that when he has backing he can do a decent job which is by no means true of all managers. So it is over to you the Two Daves- your work is just beginning.
Pluses & minuses..love predictive text.
… or do you mean productive text lol
What’s all this about selling lanzini?We don’t want to start selling our best players.?
No we cant sell Lanzinni, He is crucial to our success.
to be fair before I heard it was Pelligrini I would’ve been in the camp to sell him. He hasn’t actually been that good this season (bar maybe three games) and for the money people are talking we can actually buy a talismanic player who will carry the team. However I think Pelligrini could be the man to help Lanzini progress into this player given the right encouragement and training, as well as the right system for him
I hope he’s backed to the max IF ! He signs, but we won’t get much change out of 120m which is probably the amount that will be needed to enable us to contemplate a top 8 finish..we all know what’s at stake ..I’ll back the board once and only once we see true commitment in the transfer market and no more silly chit chat about who we are linked with which is always a load of tosh, and finally getting rid of players who are totally out of their depth in the premier league…But for now the jury is out and we shall see ….for the time being I for one am happy that there’s a positive Vibe atm…all the negativity that’s been hanging over us since the beginning of last season really affected the entire club !! Get on YAYA Toure would be a wise choice and a damned good start !!
Some of you are laughable 😆 “i think he will get 80 mil to spend.., blah blah..
you have zero idea. None of us do.
Im Ecstatic over this appointment. I never expected anything close to this. I truly expected David Moyes to remain as our manager. Hopefully this is the beginning of our dreams coming true. Making the club attractive and hopefully new investment or new owners group completely taking over.
Either way with Manuel P in control and solid top 10 finish in the upcoming season I’m going mental with anticipation and excitment. WHTID
Hope you are right Ric would definitely be good news, none of us have any idea if he has even been interviewed, its one of those I will believe it when I see it things, the papers were reporting he would sign today, now its stretched to Wednesday so lets just see…
You must be a newbie ric …of course they know 😉
Me too – best appointment I can remember in our history but obviously this is West Ham and there has to be something to moan and march about. If he doesn’t do what he did at City in his first season – win the league and league cup I’m gonna march 🙂
should be ashamed; marching without giving him a chance.
I’m staging a march about constant moaning – sounds fair to me
Far from it .. haha I’m in my 6th decade on this planet and been a Hammer since I was a young fresh shave ‘><‘
ha ha ha and you know we will finish top 10, sorry solid top 10.
Ha ha, you have zero idea none of us do..
Maybe I didn’t say hopeful or anticipation enough on that post. So one more time with more emphasis. Hopeful anticipation!
You’re a real riot I got a tell ya
The top teams will easily spend 50 million plus on one player this year, especially after the World Cup. Personally I would rather see us going down the route of unearthing future superstars and hidden gems among the young players of the world. I would rather buy a young potential neymar than an old yaya toure, if you know what I mean.
Declan Rice anyone – remind me how much we bought him for
The Mail says Pellegrini will get £5 million per year plus bonuses. So not so bad then if true.
5 million a year plus bonuses if we win things I assume. Let’s hope that adds upto 10 million then because it will mean we’ve won something. I remember that feeling from 38 years ago.
Not so sure Declan rice would have made it into the first team under Pellegrini. Not so sure players like Holland, oxford, Samuelson, brown etc will get a chance now either. Though I’m hoping Pellegrini will prove me wrong.
I am genuinely excited at the prospect of Pellegrini becoming our next manager.
Still think that if Conte is dismissed in the next 24 hours, CFC will make a play for Pellegrini .
As for him blooding young players, jury is out, for the salary being mentioned, you’d think a top nine finish would be the minimum requirement with a good cup run. Can that be achieved with youngsters coming in? Yes, with the proviso that we sign four/ five stellar players that can help to nurture and take on field responsibity away for the undoubted talents our young starlets have. Give them minutes here and there when possible, keep them in and around the squad and hopefully they’ll shine.
DJH that’s what I’m worried about too.
All seems a bit to good to be true.
Here’s hoping that he’s to attack minded for Abbramovich but there are not many other top managers left that fit the bill. It would be just typical WH for us to be gazumped again.