MANUEL PELLEGRINI MADE his strongest suggestion yet that Manchester City’s mid-season announcement of Pep Guardiola as his successor was a key factor in derailing the club’s Premier League title bid.
Advertisement
The frontman’s goal in a 1-1 draw at Swansea on Sunday secured Champions League football next season through a fourth-place finish in the Premier League.
The result will nearly certainly be enough for City to secure Champions League football for next season, unless Manchester United beat Bournemouth by a 19-goal margin on Tuesday.
“It’s going to be a bittersweet farewell to Old Trafford, now that we know we won’t be playing the Champions League next season”, said Mata.
“It’s important to investigate what happened”.
“We lost two important games at home when we were three points behind the leaders”.
Guidolin meanwhile, spoke of his pride at the way the fans sang his name following a conclusion to the season that saw Swansea take 10 points from five hard fixtures.
But the abandonment of the United game meant that the clash at the Liberty Stadium was played to a conclusion as normal. It’s never been retained, so it was a hard job going in there and being expected to win the Champions League – especially with the strength in depth in Spain and some of the English teams.
Pellegrini still spoke of his affection for City and the club’s supporters and reflected on “a very special day” that concluded with him presenting his suit jacket to a fan in the away end at the behest of Yaya Toure.
6 – Liverpool’s Christian Benteke has scored more goals from the substitutes bench than any other player this season.
“When I am on the pitch I try to give 100% and the fans deserve that, to play with 100% intensity and never give up”.
Manuel Pellegrini says he would like to stay in the Premier League after leaving Manchester City.
“So I’m very proud to manage this squad”.
In a match that held little significance for the league table, the former and current champions played out an entertaining game in which both teams created a number of chances.
“But I am ready for another challenge as we need to prepare a good team for next season so I will speak with my chairman about changes”.
Advertisement
Instead they were pegged back by André Ayew’s deflected free-kick on the stroke of half-time and unable to score the second-half goal that would have given them some breathing space and allowed Pellegrini to sign off his three-year reign with a win.
