Manchester City manager Manuel Pellgrini has been under an increasing amount of pressure in recent weeks, as his job security weakens. Having won the Premier League title in the 2013-14 season, he was expected to mount a serious challenge for the UEFA Champions League as well as doing well in the league and competing for domestic cups.
Instead, City have struggled and their unpredictable form has seen the defending champions win 1 out of their last 4 games, albeit a 1-0 victory in the Manchester derby against local rivals United last weekend courtesy of a well-taken finish from in-form Argentine striker Sergio Aguero.
He has been one of their only real positives in the campaign, given the fact that they managed to lose away from home against West Ham in their previous Premier League outing, before a shock 2-0 home defeat against Newcastle sent shockwaves to the rest of their competition as it meant they were consequently eliminated from the Capital One Cup in the Last 16, a tournament that they were expected to win.
City sit in 3rd place, in the league table currently. Although on paper, it may not look too bad, the team will look at it from an objective view and admit that they could easily be at the top of the pile if they performed better. Losing to Stoke and West Ham, with no disrespect to them, is not impressive for a side who have won the title twice in the last 3 seasons. Drawing against Arsenal and Chelsea is not as bad, given the fact those two teams are both looking to win the league also, and will be vying for top spot come May. With that being said - you would expect City to be doing better at this stage in the season regardless.
And as a result of his side's under-performing nature of late, City have been heavily linked with a swoop to offer Atlético Madrid manager Diego Simeone the job, given the assumption that if Pellegrini does not turn the ship around by the end of the season, he will be sacked. This should not come as any surprise, because Manchester City have high expectations and not a lot of patience. Simeone has been touted as one of the hottest properties in the world, in terms of managerial expertise and experience at the highest level. Won the Europa League in his first season at Atlético, before winning the Liga BBVA under the noses of Barcelona last season and narrowly missing out on the Champions League with a defeat against local rivals Real Madrid in the final itself. Impressive or what?
City have also tossed and turned in their UEFA Champions League group so far, and with 2 matches left to play, it doesn't look bright. 2 points from a possible 12 (with Bayern showing them how it's done at the top..), they somehow managed to lose a 2-0 lead away from home against CSKA Moscow a fortnight ago, before losing 2-1 in a real horror show during midweek. Yaya Touré and Fernandinho both got sent off, as Pellegrini's men showed why they are not ready to be classed as one of Europe's elite.
It's harsh, given his successes already in the job. But, it just highlights how harsh football can be at times. Pellegrini may look like a cool customer at the moment, but he will know that he'll be looking over his shoulder. Simeone has a lot of good credentials and even if he does not join Manchester in the foreseeable future, you feel that the club will do the best to find a sufficient replacement if needed.