Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini has suggested his side’s performances in the Premier League this season have been affected by the announcement that Pep Guardiola would be taking over in the summer.
City jumped up to third place at the weekend following their 3-0 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge to cap off a great week that saw Pellegrini lead them to the semi-finals of the Champions League for the first time in the club’s history.
But this season has been an underwhelming one, despite already lifting the Capital One Cup, and Pellegrini’s exit was confirmed on February 1 with the announcement that Guardiola would be arriving from Bayern Munich in the summer to replace him.
Following that big news, City won 1-0 against Sunderland but then lost three in a row to Liverpool and title challengers, Leicester City and Tottenham Hotspur, as Pellegrini feels the news affected his player’s heads.
“It’s not easy for the players when you read in newspapers all the things that will happen next season, all the players who will go out, all the players that will come in,” Pellegrini told reporters.
“It’s not easy for the players to focus their mind. But this squad has a lot of character. We never give up.”
The Spanish manager has only been a manager for six full seasons and he’s won the league title in five of those.
He has also reached the Champions League semi-finals in all seven times he’s competed in the competition and is on the verge of winning his sixth league title in his seventh season.
Guardiola is certainly the biggest name in management right now and the players at Man City know it, and Pellegrini seems to think his name constantly being brought up has affected his squad.
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