Manuel Pellegrini Out, Bayern Munich Pep Guardiola In As Manchester City Coach

Manchester City have made a coaching change. Well, they will be making a coaching change. The decision is one that is effective come the summer. City coach Manuel Pellegrini is out, and current Bayern Munich coach and former Barcelona man, Pep Guardiola, is in.

The club released a statement, confirming the hire:

"Manchester City can confirm that in recent weeks it has commenced and finalized contractual negotiations with Pep Guardiola to become MCFC (Manchester City Football Club) Head Coach for the 16/17 EPL season onwards. The contract is for three years. These negotiations were a re-commencement of discussions that were curtailed in 2012.

"Out of respect for Manuel Pellegrini and the players, the Club wishes to make its decision public to remove the unnecessary burden of speculation. Manuel Pellegrini, who is fully supportive of the decision to make this communication is entirely focused on achieving his targets for the season ahead and retains the respect and commitment of all involved with the leadership of the Club."

It's a dream hire for City, as Guardiola is a coach they've wanted for some time. The statement by City reveals that the club looked to sign him in 2012, but negotiations ultimately fell through which led to the hiring of Pellegrini, who they pried away from Malaga in Spain's La Liga.

Some three years later, though, and City finally got their man. So really, the hiring isn't all that surprising, even though Pellegrini could still win a handful of trophies this season--their still in the Champions League, find themselves positioned nicely in the Premier League, are in the fifth round of the FA Cup, and await the Capital One Cup Final at the end of February.

It does seem odd that a coach could do so well and still find himself on the undesirable end of unemployment, but that's the nature of the game today.