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Hart keen on giving Pellegrini a trophy-laden farewell

Incoming Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has already spoken to the club about a record-breaking £80m move for Paul Pogba, according to reports from the Independent.

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He has agreed a three-year contract at the Etihad, replacing the outgoing Manuel Pellegrini, who announced his departure in a press conference on the same day.

Tuesday’s 1-0 win at Sunderland gave the Chilean manager a 65th Premier League victory in 100 games, a ratio bettered only by former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, who won 73 of his first 100 English top-flight matches.

And Hart believes Pellegrini’s dignified stance to being shown the door by City and a determination to go out in a blaze of trophy glory deserves major respect.

Eyebrows were raised when United paid an initial fee of £36million for the French forward last September and Van Gaal admits the 20-year-old is exceeding expectations.

Some have questioned the timing of the revelation as Bayern are still in contention to win the treble of the Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal and Champions League, with a potential tie against Manchester City in the European competition also on the table. It is very exciting for everybody outside of our team, but in our team it is the moment we live in.

“That’s not the reason he’s not managing us next season”.

“The most important thing for the team was to come here and win this game”, he said. In winning the double in the 2013-14 season, City scored 156 goals in all competitions as Pellegrini preached an attacking, entertaining approach in keeping with the vision of director of football Txiki Begiristain and at odds with Mancini’s often unadventurous style. Only this season has Pellegrini started to regularly play one up front. “He’s got an attention to detail very, very hard to find in another manager”.

Hart added, on CityTV: “He has been a top manager for us”.

That approach was not entirely successful, but it seems the drama surrounding the manager has not yet affected the players. Right now my focus is with the players I am with and the management staff I am with.

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City remain three points adrift of Leicester, while their hosts are still four points shy of safety, a fact which was not lost on manager Sam Allardyce, whose emotions were decidedly mixed.

Kolarov