Manuel Pellegrini backs Manchester City to react positively to mounting pressure

Reports in Germany suggest Bayern Munich boss Pep Guardiola will be heading to Manchester City at the end of the season.

Kicker are using the aforementioned C-word (by which we mean “confirmed”, before you get excited) quite vehemently in their report, claiming to have heard from “reliable English sources” that Guardiola will be heading for City after he parts company with Bayern Munich at the end of the current season as planned.

The manager has been linked to the two Manchester clubs and London clubs, Arsenal and Chelsea with different journalists taking turns at writing why the think he will go to a particular club.

On Wednesday, Bayern chief executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge revealed that the 44-year-old would definitely leave, and added: “I think I know where he is going”.

“I don’t think players work for the manager, they work for the group, the team, themselves”. You have a good connection with the players, and this is important to be a good manager.

Although the holding midfielder was not a regular headline-grabber, he was a key cog in the Barca side that dominated European football under the Spanish tactician – who handed him his first-team chance during his reign.

‘I don’t know if the speculation is wrong.

“If they do they are not professional players, they are not top players”. Because this sort of thing is a fact of life at big clubs, you must separate the present and the future for your work. It’s never your decision so you never know.

“I am absolutely sure nobody in the squad has any problems or doubts about what we’re doing and after that we’ll see what happens in the future”. Look at Chelsea – three months ago nobody could have known this [Jose Mourinho’s departure] would happen. “That is all I am concentrating on and then I will know exactly what will happen about my future”. “And after that it doesn’t depend on you”.