Manuel Pellegrini claims that he has no concerns over his position as Manchester City’s manager, despite them being knocked out at the last-16 stage of the Champions League by Barcelona for a second successive season.
Ivan Rakitic’s 31st-minute goal gave Luis Enrique’s team a 1-0 victory in the second leg and a 3-1 win on aggregate. The Premier League champions became the fourth and final English club to drop out of this season’s Champions League but the wider concern for their manager is his own future, given City’s defence of their domestic title is also faltering, with them six points behind Chelsea having played a game more than the London club.
Pellegrini has consistently talked of the need for City to progress as a club and so the pressure on him has intensified in recent weeks, and even more so following their showing against Barça across two legs, with the visitors especially overawed here, in particular during the first half, during which Lionel Messi set up Rakitic’s goal with an exquisite pass to cap an awesome individual display.
Asked if he could be 100% sure of still being City’s manager next season, Pellegrini replied: “At the end of the season we’ll see what we analyse [and what] is the future but I don’t have any problems or am worried about that. Maybe it is not the moment to try to explain different things. It’s very important for this team to try to win something every year. But I don’t think it is absolutely necessary to think that you [have to] improve because there are a lot of things that you must analyse in the right moment. I repeat, last season was a very good season.”
In his defence, the Chilean pointed to financial fair play penalties that have limited City to a net £49m transfer spend this season, which rather overlooks the fact the club have spent close to £170m on players in the past two years. “This year we have just some important restrictions especially to bring important players, we didn’t reinforce our squad so good as much as other teams,” said the manager.
On the continuing speculation about his job, Pellegrini added: “It’s not a distraction,” and would not be drawn on whether the squad requires wholesale changes. “We will see about that in the right moment. I don’t see it as a failure – it is a disappointment but we have reached the last 16 twice,” he said. “We were unlucky to play Barça on both occasions – we have had a big restriction on our squad size and money, but we have to admit Barça were a better team.”
Joe Hart, who was City’s undoubted best performer here and arguably produced his best performance for the club, gave his backing to Pellegrini. “It’s always going to be the same at City, for all the players. We appreciate that if we don’t win everyone will be speculated about. You have to be strong inside,” said the goalkeeper. “We back our manager. He is a great manager and brought us two trophies last year. Now we have nine [league] games to win – and that’s what we hope to do.”
“Make no bones about it, Barcelona were the better team in both legs but we hung on in there, defended and made saves, and made tackles, but then didn’t take our chance to get back into it. We have to learn to take our chances. Sometimes in Europe you won’t be the better team and you have to somehow find a way to win.”
