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Manuel Pellegrini is leaving plenty of problems for Pep Guardiola at Manchester City

When Alex Ferguson stepped down at Manchester United, he left a peculiar squad for his anointed successor, David Moyes. It was a mixture of established veterans with the nous of to win in most situations,, and younger meek players who wouldn’t know how to stand up to Ferguson if he ever needed it. For example, Roy Keane had gone, as had Ruud van Nistelrooy, and in their places were Anderson and Javier Hernandez, two people incapable of driving on a side. Ferguson had followed the advice that he eventually gave to Dave Brailsford about how to succeed: “Get rid of the c***s.” The thing is for Ferguson, success and complete control became inseparable, and for him control was easier without people who might stand up to him.

Keane, for example, correctly pointed out that the farrago over his horse court case would ultimately be a nonsense. It was, and it ended up with the Glazers. With the Glazers ceding almost complete control on football matters to Ferguson, he was free to get rid of Van Nistelrooy and Keane, and bring in players like Ashley Young.

Teamed with Young, at the end of Ferguson’s last season, were Robin van Persie, Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs. All excellent players, none of whom were famous for their forthright exchanges with Ferguson. The one who would stand up, Wayne Rooney, was ushered to the exit, ready for Moyes to poke him over the edge if he wanted. Rooney, no fool, was quickly pally with Moyes as he realised it would be the best thing for his career to be a yes man, once the move to Chelsea fell through.

When Moyes took over, he had a team who just couldn’t be bothered anymore. Of the players listed above, only Rooney and Evra played close to the best of their abilities. Within two seasons, all had left except Rooney and Giggs, who was just an assistant manager. Only Ferdinand had a bust up with Moyes, the rest just simply gave up, collecting their wages without putting in the required effort. There is too, obviously, blame for Moyes in being unable to force unwilling players to bend to his methods. But what the side needed would have been players, like Keane, who would have refused to lower their standards just because of circumstances, and drag players and managers along with them. There were senior players there, just none that you’d actually regard as leaders.

Now have a look at Manchester City’s squad. Joe Hart is there, a conspicuous shouter who thinks that is leading, whereas leading would be acting less self-consciously and making fewer mistakes. There is Vincent Kompany, whose biggest problem is he can rarely get on the pitch long enough to influence anything. Martin Demichelis has experience, but he has experience of being a mainly substandard defender. David Silva and Jesus Navas are as mute as they are disappointing. Yaya Toure might occasionally find some magic down the back of the sofa to rescue his side, but with the birthday cake nonsense and his regular harping for a move away, he might have been a leader once, but he isn’t now. Only Sergio Aguero is capable of leading by example, but he plays in the wrong position, and is too quiet anyway.

And, who might stand up to Manuel Pellegrini? Carlos Tevez was the only gobby player of recent memory, and he quickly exited. There is an enormous lack of ****s, at least of the right kind, at City. That problem is compounded by the senior players there having no interest in adding to their collection of trophies. They have their Wikipedia honours entry sorted, they have their pensions assured, and they have warmer countries, with better food, to go and enjoy after their time in England.

Manchester City desperately need Champions League football, and it would be a City-esque anticlimax to appoint Pep Guardiola in the summer, and have him in the Europa League in the autumn. Somebody needs to spur on the players to prevent them losing out to United, or more probably to West Ham. How that can happen is not really clear.

As discussed, the players they have, the ones who are there in established roles, aren’t interested in playing for their manager, too busy thinking about their club. There’s no advantage in getting City into the top four, if they won’t be at City for longer than a few more months. There is advantage, though, in keeping things laidback and slack, as they maintain their health and stamina ahead of the European Championships, or any imminent medicals. Of the players in the City squad, only Raheem Sterling, Sergio Aguero and Hart, perhaps Fernandinho, will be excited and more than likely to work under Guardiola.

City are, in some ways, in a worse shape than United were when Ferguson retired. Only a handful of the team are certain to stay, and plenty more of them need replacing. But they have Pellegrini who to manage the squad until the handover. Pellegrini seems slightly depressed with the current run of bad form, but has taken the Guardiola news like a man who already has known about it for a year, and who has been well paid for managing in such circumstances. Even if he has a dignity about him, he has never been inspiring at the best of time. A safe pair of hands is what you want in a crisis, or at a bank, not at a club trying to simultaneously become the best in the world, and launder the reputation of a country famous for human rights abuses and antisemitism.

But they do have three advantages that United didn’t, in the aftermath of replacing their manager. One, the old one is not there, handpicking his own set of ****s to influence things and maintain his control, for its own sake. There is nobody briefing that Brian Kidd should be given the job full time, for example. Two, they have the money that is required to rebuild, if only for the sake of the aforementioned human rights abuses. And three, perhaps the most important one, they have the best manager in the world taking over, not David Moyes. Pellegrini, City’s executives and the players have conspired to give Guardiola a duff starting point, but they at least act like they are aware of it, and are willing to change.