OPINION
West Ham’s reported interest in Manuel Pellegrini is nothing to be sniffed at as it is showing a lot of ambition that would have other teams in the Premier League jealous.
The Daily Mirror reported on Friday that the 64-year-old, who won the Premier League title with Manchester City in 2014, was the Hammers’ Plan B if they were unable to get Rafa Benitez.
This just shows the staggering amount of ambition surrounding the London Stadium as for an impressive manager like Pellegrini only to be seen as second-choice is insane.
Especially if the Daily Express’ report on the pursuit of the former Man City boss is anything to go by.
The newspaper claimed that the veteran manager was out of the running as he would cost £5million in compensation to pry away from Chinese club Hebei China Fortune and wanted a deal worth £8.5million.
While the Express reported that he was no longer a contender to be Hammers’ manager, clearly that isn’t the case and it’s easy to believe the tremendous amount of money that would be involved in getting a manager of his calibre.
Pellegrini has managed several high profile clubs, including his reign at Manchester City, as he has had spells at River Plate, Real Madrid, Villarreal and Malaga.
In fact ever since leaving Argentina’s River Plate in 2004, the manager has never guided a team to a finish lower than seventh in the league and how great would it be if he kept that record up with the Hammers.
The London-based club nearly suffered relegation in the recently concluded season and it would be a remarkable turn around to be competing in the top half of the league only a season later.
There’s no doubt that Pellegrini would enable that to happen as he knows England’s top-flight from his time in Manchester and his track record was not achieved by accident.
Many of the Hammers’ Premier League rivals would be bending over backwards to go all out to get the experienced manager and would prioritise him as their number one target.
Yet to the Hammers, he’s merely second-choice to another excellent option in the form of Benitez.
Therefore given the amount of money Pellegrini would cost, his tremendous ability, the fact he is only the Hammers’ Plan B shows a staggering amount of ambition that should have other Premier League clubs seething with jealousy.
