Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini does not expect to have any players join or leave his club during the January transfer window.
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Domestic knockout action takes precedence in the coming days as City travel to Everton for the first leg of their Capital One Cup semi-final on Wednesday.
Everton are 11th in the league with 27 points, though they have registered fewer defeats than Crystal Palace, Liverpool, Watford and Stoke City, who all sit above them in the table.
Pep Guardiola has confirmed he wants to coach in the Premier League next season and there continues to be confidence at City that the Spaniard will become the club’s manager.
Midfielder Yaya Toure has been key to all City’s trophy successes in recent seasons and Pellegrini is convinced the Ivorian is still a powerful performer despite recent criticism.
“We have the correct squad for the season, so [we] are not thinking about any special player or position. I think at my age, it is the right moment to go”. For a manager, your work is to win the title, so the other doesn’t matter.
Gareth Barry can tell you all about just how volatile and unpredictable the atmosphere at Goodison can be.
There is some debate over whether it is better to play the second leg on home soil – the backing of your own supporters and surroundings is often cited as being more advantageous following what can sometimes be a tense first encounter. But I felt good and it carried on from there.
Pellegrini has stated, “Kun is very important to our team”.
Pellegrini’s comments would appear to indicate that the Chilean coach is nearly anticipating his dismissal either at the season’s end or before.
“A lot of things are different”, he said, per The Guardian.
“I just love to play and always want to be involved”, he said via the Manchester Evening News.
“At least I finished the year [at Real]. I knew from the beginning I was not to continue for the next year”. There were some important differences with the president but it is not unusual when you see what happened in Real Madrid in the last five or six years.
That means young players in Abu Dhabi learn to score goals like Sergio Aguero, defend like captain Vincent Kompany and master ball skills like David Silva. They have won three out of four such ties, scoring nine times in the process, and only slipping up against Champions League finalists Juventus.
“I’ve played against Manchester City three times since I left and have lost them all”, he said.
“We’ll try to do everything we can to recover our injured players as soon as we can”.
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“I’ve been happy with my performances”.
