Is Manuel Pellegrini Still the Right Man to Take Manchester City Forward?

Manuel Pellegrini's appointment as Manchester City manager in the summer of 2013 was a somewhat muted affair. There was no sensationalism or a flurry of headlines. It was seen as a smart appointment, the kind that would stabilise a club that had been plunged into turmoil during the dying embers of Roberto Mancini's tenure.

The Italian led in an autocratic way. Much of his squad and staff had been alienated by his management style. Former sporting director Brian Marwood was the most damaged by Mancini's tendency to go public with his grievances, but there appeared to be many victims behind the scenes. He left a squad divided.

The club, led by Txiki Begiristain and Ferran Soriano, wanted change. According to Goal.com's Greg Stobart, their top target was Pep Guardiola, whom they had worked alongside with great success at Barcelona, but he opted to join Bayern Munich instead. The Premier League would have to wait to entice one of the game's brightest managerial talents. City, no doubt, would be back in the hunt for him when he eventually left the Allianz Arena.

In the meantime, City needed a manager who ticked a number of boxes. Attractive football was a must. A serene style of leadership was also essential as an antidote to the Mancini era. City's Abu Dhabi overlords want to promote their country as a place people can visit and enjoy. They cannot let that operation be led by someone who is problematic and confrontational. A likeable, professional and intelligent manager was needed to symbolise their projected values.

They also had to find a man who could work alongside a sporting director. Begiristain, who had been integral to Barcelona's golden period under Guardiola, was seen as hugely important. The manager of the first team needed to be able to work comfortably alongside him or it simply wouldn't work.

Pellegrini was one of the few who ticked all the boxes. A three-year deal was signed—exactly the same length of time as Guardiola had agreed to manage the Bundesliga and European champions.

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Was Pellegrini taken on as a glorified caretaker? It mattered little a few months into his time in charge, as City outscored all before them.

Mancini had turned them from perennial underachievers to winners, and he will forever be remembered as the man who ended a long trophy drought, rooting out a losing mentality and replacing it with a winning belief. But what Pellegrini served up in his first season in charge was on another level.

His side scored 156 goals in all competitions and won a league-and-cup double. It wasn't a campaign without blips. They could have won the FA Cup, with Pellegrini becoming the first manager to win the domestic treble in England, and their Champions League exit was somewhat limp, but, overall, it was a wonderful season defined by brilliant attacking football.

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Pellegrini had released the handbrake and City were moving at a new pace. It was attacking and exciting—an exhilarating approach constructed by a manager who only knew one way to play.

His follow-up season was disappointing, though. His dogmatic tactical outlook was criticised. City's title defence collapsed at the turn of the year as Chelsea were allowed to waltz unchallenged and steal the trophy. City exited both domestic cups in poor fashion, and their Champions League exit had a familiar feel. It was impossible for him to argue any progress had been made.

His critics were growing in number and becoming more vocal. There were some supporters who had never liked him, so blindly loyal to his predecessor were they. Now, they felt, they had proper justification for their dislike.

But City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, a patient and fair man, kept faith—partly because of the esteem Pellegrini is held in in the Etihad Stadium boardroom, and partly, perhaps, because he knew he had to wait 12 months to get Guardiola.

Either way, Pellegrini was allowed to enter the third year of his deal and was even handed a one-year extension in an attempt to ease the media speculation about his future.

It was a sensible decision. It hasn't been a perfect season, far from it, but City remain in the hunt for four trophies and, perhaps more crucially, are now firm favourites to land Guardiola in the summer.

The Bayern boss, who won 14 trophies in four seasons at Barcelona, is the most coveted manager in the game. If City do lure him, it would be a huge moment for the club. Their plan to employ Pellegrini for three years and let him oversee the transition from Mancini to their chosen target appears to be ever closer.

Pellegrini has clearly been briefed throughout the process. The club do not want a messy end, particularly with a manager they respect hugely. The interview the Chilean gave to Sunday journalists in December, reported by Simon Mullock in the Sunday Mirror, says everything you need to know about the quiet dignity of the City boss.

Pellegrini said:

"

Pep Guardiola will work here. I don't know if it will be next season here at City, or even at another club, but I am sure that one day he will come to the Premier League.

And I hope he will have the option to work at Manchester City.

I say that because I love this club and I hope, in the future, he can work here also. I am sure that he will be very important for the club.

A lot of things will happen in the future. But when is the future? You never know. It might be next year. But I don't worry. The only thing I am worried about is this year, trying to win the most amount of trophies I can.

"

It would be disastrous for Pellegrini if he oversaw another empty-handed season. His time in charge would be seen as a failure. Win trophies, and he will leave the club a legend.

He is the man to lead City into the summer, and any talk to the contrary is reactionary and daft, but it seems less likely he is the man to take them beyond this season.

It was an astute appointment—the right man at the right time—but, as Soriano himself said in an interview with the Telegraph's Mark Ogden in 2013: "I think three, four, five years is one cycle. Maybe a manager can do one or two cycles, but people get tired. Players need another way, another excitement, and managers also want to move, but I think this is normal."

It seems Pellegrini’s cycle is winding down and City need reinvigorating. Guardiola is just the man to do it.

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Rob Pollard is Bleacher Report's lead Manchester City correspondent and will be following the club from a Manchester base throughout the 2015/16 season. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Follow him on Twitter @RobPollard_.