David Moyes and Manuel Pellegrini have both just started their journeys with Manchester United and Manchester City respectively but they are under different types of pressure with different sets of expectation.
David Moyes signed a four-year deal at United as the Old Trafford club look to seek out longevity following the 26-year reign of Sir Alex Ferguson.
United fans need to accept that Moyes is a long term signing and resist the urge to call for his head if things don’t go according to the plans they’ve become used to during his first season in charge of the club.
Manuel Pellegrini by contrast seems to be an appointment aimed at shaping the future of the club but also maintaining the recent success that Manchester City have become used to because of their wealth.
Pellegrini has wasted no time with his comments about various things he believes the club can win, which isn’t exactly the right sort of noise to make if you want to protect your position for a very long time.
“It was not successful this time but I am sure in the next years we will win — maybe the Premier League, the Champions League. But we’ll try to win the lot,” said Pellegrini following his appointment.
Both clubs expect the highest standards but Moyes looks to have time on his side whereas Pellegrini seems more focused on short term success over shaping and changing the future of the club.
The expectations of the fans are also very different and needs to be taken into consideration.
A lot of United supporters will still be very much in ‘Sir Alex Ferguson’ mode and those are the fans Moyes has to work very hard to overcome.
The club’s chances of winning trophies next season and beyond have been altered by Ferguson’s retirement but they have the same squad in place, which was good enough to win the league last year.
United fans won’t want to see any backwards progress, it’s all about maintaining their current position, making sensible signings this summer and then moving forward next season.
For City fans it’s different because all they seem to want is success over United in any way, shape or form.
If Pellegrini can put trophies in the cabinet, he’ll have the fans on his side and he’ll have the backing of officials at the club.
Again, it’s more of a short term vision but City fans will be expecting the club to go big again next season and that means winning things. Changes do need to be made to the basic infrastructure of the club but that’s not a main concern of fans.
If Pellegrini throws some cash at high profile transfers and maintains the clubs chances of winning silverware, the fans will be happy.
In terms of realistic chances of winning trophies, United have as good a chance as any other English club next season.
Ferguson is leaving behind a good core group of players that Moyes can work with across all competitions; the Premier League, the Champions League and domestic cup competitions.
They are under pressure to win something but Moyes will be safe if they don’t, by contrast if City fail to win anything following Pellegrini’s outrageous arrogance then he will more than likely face the chop long before the Old Trafford boss.
Who do you think will go first?
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