“It was not a good season, no, it was not a good season, but a disaster is when you are not involved in the next season’s Champions League”.
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And Wenger feels the announcement that Pellegrini would be out of a job in the summer stripped the Chilean of all power, leading to their downfall in the English top flight and their Champions League semi-final elimination.
Ahead of the weekend’s fixtures, City trail Arsenal by three points, with Manchester United and West Ham, who face off at the Boleyn Ground on Tuesday in their game in hand, four and five points further back respectively. I believe he’s respected by everybody in the Premier League, certainly by myself’. I finish my contract here but that is not a thing I am anxious about.
Pellegrini will be replaced by Guardiola at the end of the season.
Outgoing City boss Pellegrini wants to preserve his record of finshing in the top-four in his three seasons in the Premier League and conceded it would. All the other games we won.
“At the moment, we just have one game, and that is Swansea”, Bilic said.
“It is very important for me also, so I don’t understand those kind of speculations about that”.
City limped out of the Champions League in the semi-finals on Wednesday after an insipid 1-0 defeat at Real Madrid that emphasised why the club’s hierarchy were so eager to acquire Guardiola’s services.
But while Pellegrini admits expectations were higher, he thinks the campaign should be looked on positively.
“If you are not in the top four and in the Champions League the next year, to demonstrate you are one of the best teams in England, then for me, it’s a disaster”, Pellegrini said.
“We have the type of players that if I say tomorrow we will only defend with Mesut Ozil in the team, it would become hard”.
“But it’s so important for the players to be in the Champions League next year”.
So at least one of the Premier League’s blue-chip clubs is facing the “disaster” of missing out on the Champions League over the next eight days. “It is a season I think you can improve on, but it was not a bad season”.
He said: “Of course it is a very a special game because we finish at home after very intensive years”.
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“But as a manager you must try to dominate your emotions”.
