Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini appears to be losing the battle to keep his job at the Etihad after having seen a run of six defeats in the clubs last eight games, and should they now fail to qualify for next seasons Champions League it could see the Chileans fate sealed.
Emerging as a front runner to replace Pellegrini is former Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez, who has already decided to leave his current team Napoli and return to England at the end of the season.
The talk is of City offering the Spaniard a short-term deal in the hope of still trying to land Bayern Munich’s Pep Guardiola at a later date once his contract is up with the German champions on 2016.
Another man on the short list to take over this summer is Real Madrid’s Carlo Ancelotti, yet with the Italian trainer seemingly happy at the Santiago Bernabeu there is no guarantee that he would be tempted by an offer from City, which all points back to Benitez being given a 12-month contract to take the team forward rather than sticking with Pellegrini until they can get the man they really want.
The 54-year-old Benitez has a proven record and was offered a similar role at Chelsea in 2012 taking the Blues on to win the Europa League after having already won the Champions League with Liverpool.
Meanwhile Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney could not help sticking the boot into the clubs rivals calling them lazy saying: “We know some of the City players are not the best at getting back and defending and tracking runners and we felt we could make them pay for that – which we have done.”
