We’ve already taken a look at West Ham United’s new signings ahead of the start of the Premier League season, but we’d be remiss not to include a showcase on the man who is at the helm for the Hammers. Manuel Pellegrini joined West Ham as manager during the off-season, and has assembled this new-look squad who’ll take to the London Stadium turf to face Bournemouth on Saturday 18 August.
We've already given a detailed look at West Ham's new defensive arrivals here, as well as a profile on their wealth of new attacking talent here...
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The efficient Chilean was a defender back in his playing days, a one-club man with Club Universidad de Chile, playing 451 times. He played for 13 years before retiring without an honour to his name, but that would change when he stepped into management.
His first job was with one of his home-nation’s most popular club sides, Universidad Catolica. In two years he guided the club to win the Copa Interamericana and the 1995 Copa Chile. His success notified bigger suitors in South America, as Pellegrini ventured to Argentina.
In 2001, Pellegrini took charge of San Lorenzo, one of two non-Argentinians to manage the club. In just one season, he won their first international title, the Copa Mercosur, their equivalent to the Europa League. He won a league title with River Plate as he continued to build his reputation ahead of a move into Europe, which came in 2004.
This is where Pellegrini established himself as a world-class coach, enhancing the levels of players at his disposal which enabled him to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League with Villarreal. A third placed finish in La Liga in 2005 took them into Europe’s major competition. They saw off the mighty Inter Milan in the quarter-finals until heartbreak against Arsenal and Juan Riquelme’s infamous penalty miss.
A highest-ever finish of second in 2008 for Villarreal meant Pellegrini became a wanted asset, in came Real Madrid. A dream come true for Manuel, but what turned into a nightmare. Early exits in cup competitions, yet he achieved a record points total for the club of 96, at the time, but Barcelona had three points more.Â
He was dismissed but did oversee the signing of one Cristiano Ronaldo, in 2009. The Chilean was the first manager to guide two clubs to Champions League quarter-finals in their debut seasons in the competition, as he moved onto Malaga. Financial difficulties forced him to leave Malaga in 2013, which led him to the Premier League.
With the task to revive the ‘golden generation’ of Manchester City, Pellegrini was a slow burner in England but eventually his side were purring. A league and cup double made him the first manager outside of Europe to win the Premier League, he enjoyed emphatic victories over Spurs, Arsenal and best of all, Manchester United and reached 100 goals by mid-January!
He couldn’t carry on expectations and the opportunity to sign Pep Guardiola proved irresistible for Sheikh Mansour, but Pellegrini had made his mark in England. He left in the summer of 2016 with the fifth highest win percentage in Premier League history.
He tried his luck in China with Hebei China Fortune but has now returned to England and Premier League football. An exciting season awaits the Hammers and London Stadium.
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Pellegrini has been joined by a Director of Football at West Ham United. Argentinian Mario Husillos, a player at Real Madrid back in 1977, he worked with Pellegrini at Malaga in 2012. Overseeing a successful Champions League run and establishing the club in the top-half of La Liga, he moves to London Stadium to link up with the Chilean boss once again.
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Alongside the boss, Manuel Pellegrini has brought trusted assistant Ruben Cousillas to the team, the eighth club they’ve joined forces at. A former Argentinian goalkeeper, he began his career at San Lorenzo, playing over 100 times and where he and Pellegrini would return as coaches. Throughout South America and Europe, he’s been his right-hand man.
Enzo Maresca is a former West Brom player, playing in the old First Division in 1998 before impressive form earned him a dream move to Juventus. The Italian then ventured west to Spain for game-time and was rewarded at Sevilla, scoring two in a 4-0 UEFA Cup final win over Middlesbrough in 2006. Maresca ended up playing under Pellegrini in a successful Malaga side in 2011. After retiring last year, he began coaching with Vincenzo Montella at Sevilla, now he joins the Hammers.
Experienced goalkeeper coach Xavi Valero will put Adrian and Lukasz Fabianski through their paces. He was a constant of Rafa Benitez’s backroom teams at Liverpool, Inter Milan and Real Madrid.
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