If recent reports are to be believed, it appears that management is talks with Malaga’s Manuel Pellegrini to replace Rafael Benitez at Stamford Bridge. These talks come after an impressive season where the club made the quarter finals of the Champion’s League in their first ever appearance there.
The 59-year-old Pellegrini is said to have impressed Chelsea management with his leadership at Malaga, especially since the team’s financial situation have left the club in a position where it will be banned for the next four years from European competition.
According to both the Daily Telegraph and The Sun, the club and Pellegrini met in Paris to gauge the Malaga manager’s interested in moving over to Stamford Bridge. Pellegrini’s current deal with Malaga is through next season and any club wishing to acquire the manager must come up with €4 million, the amount of his buy-out clause.
Should Pellegrini make the move to Stamford Bridge, he would instantly move to a team with no significant problems financially and could completely focus on football. The squad is currently a top club in the Premier League and a regular fixture in the Champions League. The club’s EPL sponsorship deals will help ensure that the club has enough money to continue to be a contender and not just a “project” as Malaga’s squad is currently.
According to Jesus Martinez, Pellegrini’s agent, “Pellegrini has a contract and a release clause of €4 million. Nobody has come to Malaga with that €4 million asking permission to speak with Pellegrini, so we must keep our feet on the ground and look to continue the project. [But] the people in charge of the club must come up with real solutions.”
Pellegrini has stated before that he would like to remain with the club until he retires and then live in Malaga. However, he now also believes that the football project in Malaga is distorted in comparison to what it was when he joined the club. He said that, “My future is going to depend more on what Malaga do than on external offers.”