Pellegrini: I hope Guardiola comes to City one day

Manuel Pellegrini hopes to see Pep Guardiola given the chance to manage Manchester City in future.

The Bayern Munich boss will give an announcement on his future on Sunday, when he is expected to confirm he will leave the Bundesliga champions at the end of the season.

City have been touted as Guardiola’s most likely destination, with former Barcelona directors Ferran Soriano and Txiki Begiristain pulling the strings at the Etihad Stadium, though Chelsea and Manchester United remain rumoured potential options.

Pellegrini, speaking candidly about the prospect of being replaced by Guardiola, says any coach in the world would find the Premier League difficult to turn down and claims he would enjoy seeing City thrive under the former Spain midfielder in future years.

“I cannot talk about Pep, but I can assure you that all the important managers want to work in the Premier League, it is impossible not to want to work here,” he said.

“I am sure Pep Guardiola will work here someday. I even hope he will have the opportunity to work at Manchester City too, because I love this club and I care about its future and I am sure he would do a good job.

When is the future, I don’t know, but if the future turns out to be next year the most important thing for me to do is try to win the title again this season.

“To win two titles in three years would be quite an achievement, I think, and we were runners-up last season too. That was not our best season, I admit, but at least it was not a disaster.”

Pellegrini also offered words of encouragement to axed Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, claiming he could emerge a stronger manager for his experience this term.

“Mourinho has just had an important experience, the kind maybe he has not had before in his career and when he is 60 he will be a better manager for it,” the 62-year-old Chilean added. 

“Of course someday you have to finish, but I would say managers in their fifties and sixties are at the best age to handle big players and big clubs.”