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City to hire new boss shortly

 Manchester - Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak on Friday revealed the Premier League club will confirm their new manager in the next two weeks.

Malaga coach Manuel Pellegrini has been strongly linked with the job after Roberto Mancini was sacked by City following their shock FA Cup final defeat against Wigan earlier this month.

Pellegrini insists there is no agreement between himself and City at present, but he did recently concede he is set to leave the Spanish club at the end of the season.

Al Mubarak has now set a timeframe for the new appointment and the criteria the club is looking for ahead of next season's bid to regain the league title from Manchester United.

"We obviously want sustainable success for this club and (picking the manager) is absolutely the most important decision for a football club," Mubarak told City's website.

"The type of person we would like running our football team is someone with great man-management capability and the ability to get the best out of the talent we have, get the best out of the youth we have and establish and continue a systematic approach from the youth team to the elite team and reserves.

"We have a wonderful team running this process internally (to select a new manager) and are putting a very comprehensive process in place.

"They have created a shortlist of managers who fit that criteria and we are pretty much done. We are very close. I expect to make an appointment probably in the next two weeks."

Whether the man to fit the role will be Pellegrini remains to be seen but the 59-year-old Chilean appears the firm favourite.

Al Mubarak was clear about his reasons for wanting a new man in the City dugout just 12 months after Mancini led the club to their first English league title for 44 years.

Mancini's departure has been mourned by City fans but many of the club's players were less impressed with the Italian's strict man-management style, while the team's failure in the Champions League, where they crashed out in the group stage for the second successive year, also infuriated the owners.

"We all felt it was time for a change," said Al Mubarak.

"Our expectations were to come in and achieve more and move forward.

"I don't think we have achieved that this year and that is why we have to re-focus this summer on getting us back on track and again to winning ways.

"We are a club that has been designed to win Championships. We are here to win, to play beautiful football

"Roberto has done a great job for the club and everybody associated with Manchester City should be deeply appreciative of everything Roberto has done for this club.

"He's won us the FA Cup in 2011 and the Premier League, the Charity Shield. It's been a wonderful ride and Roberto has done an incredible job.

"I have the highest regard for Roberto as a coach, as a manager and as a friend.

"But it was time for City for a change. We need something new. We need a change of direction and a decision was made that it was time to part ways."
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