Report highlights shock condition of duo after Pellegrini managed them

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West Ham, you’ve been warned.

Those thinking that the days of underperforming Hammers are behind the club following the appointment of Manuel Pellegrini might have to think again.

Slaven Bilic came under criticism in the months before he got the sack for the iffy fitness and energy levels of many West Ham players in a squad supporters have damned as ‘Dad’s Army’.

David Moyes was seen as the sergeant-major type who could drill players used to Bilic’s more laissez-faire regime.

To an extent, that was true, with Marko Arnautovic the biggest success story of the Moyes era after badly fluffing his lines in the first half of the season.

Pellegrini is certainly accustomed to handling egotistical, high profile players.

But the Chilean’s approach will be to treat the West Ham squad as grown-ups rather than children, and they will not be expecting naughty-boy nets from the new manager.

It is a management style that does not always pay off.

The Telegraph report that Pep Guardiola “could not quite believe the sort of shape midfielders Yaya Toure and Samir Nasri were in when he pitched up at [Manchester] City after Pellegrini’s departure”.

Nasri was put on a special conditioning programme and told he could not train with the first team until he was in the right condition to do so.

Guardiola subsequently claimed the Frenchman was “overweight” during the third and final of Pellegrini’s seasons at City.

That should act as a warning to the West Ham powerbrokers who are hailing the capture of Pellegrini as the deal of the century.

He is an accomplished manager with an impressive record in multiple countries, but he is far from perfect. He’s certainly no Guardiola.

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Report highlights shock condition of duo after Pellegrini managed them

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