Manchester City players ‘very happy’ with Manuel Pellegrini, insists David Silva

“They are important games but we are just in the first round (of fixtures)”.

Pep Guardiola has always been linked with the Etihad Stadium post and that talk will only increase after Sunday’s announcement that he will leave Bayern Munich at the end of the season.

Expect Manchester United, now suffering a thousand agonies under the prosaic leadership of Louis van Gaal, to start belatedly making eyes at the Spaniard as discontent with the autocratic former schoolteacher rumbles ever louder.

The 44-year-old has not revealed where his next destination will be.

“My contract showed that the club was happy and that I was happy, but sometimes you can have a contract for six or eight years and, at the end of the season, you don’t continue anyway”, he said.

Especially with Van Gaal’s old veneer of self-confidence gradually beginning to evaporate.

Hiddink has identified a lack of goals as a major problem for the struggling Premier League champions and is keen to address it when the transfer window reopens.

And it is claimed Chelsea have been in talks with Atletico Madrid boss Simeone for a month about taking over in the summer with the Argentine believed to be looking for a new challenge. “Some day he’ll come here”.

City have long coveted Guardiola but a final decision has not been made, giving hope to Man United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain. “I don’t know if it is next season here [at City] or at another club”, Pellegrini said.

“I am very honoured that I will be the coach of the big FC Bayern Munich from next season”, Ancelotti said.

If that makes it sound nearly a done deal, then Mourinho’s departure from Chelsea may have clouded the picture.

Though the details of the arrangement are not yet clear but it is understood that Guardiola has confirmed he will replace the Portuguese boss in the summer according to an unknown source close to Russian oligarch.

“For me it is not hard (to be motivated) because I want to win, win and win”, he said.

“It is unique to play in that league”. In the past there have been games where I have played and had to have an injection.