West Ham United manager Manuel Pellegrini has made clear his desire for Hammers right back Pablo Zabaleta to remain at the club after this season.
The Argentine is out of contract in the summer and there has understandably been speculation over his future, with Claret & Hugh reporting in January that the club were in a battle with the player’s former club Manchester City over his future. City are said to be keen for the 34-year-old to return to the Etihad Stadium in a coaching role in the future.
Pellegrini has had his say: “I don’t see Pablo next season not continuing to play,” he told Football London. “His mentality is as a player, maybe in the future he can be a very good coach also, but I don’t think that he wants to retire.
“I would prefer to have him as a player [not go to City as a coach]. After that we can see if he is a coach or not, but now he is playing and inside the dressing room he has a very important duty.”
OPINION
It’s interesting to hear Pellegrini come out and say that he doesn’t think Zabaleta wants to retire. The player himself hasn’t made an announcement one way or the other, of course, but Pellegrini obviously has his own thoughts on the situation. The lure of returning to City, where he enjoyed so much success over many years, will understandably be strong for Zabaleta. Securing a coaching role on Pep Guardiola’s staff would be tremendous for his prospects post-playing career. It all comes down to whether he wants to keep playing, really. Perhaps he feels that he’s starting to decline and that he wouldn’t be a regular for West Ham if he stayed beyond this season. We have seen signs of that lately, with the veteran starting to look his age at long last. Ryan Fredericks is back to full fitness and that’s only going to decrease Zabaleta’s playing time further, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens with this one.
