Manuel Pellegrini spoke to BBC Sport on Real Betis‘ pre-season tour in San Diego about his career and life at West Ham.
“Coming back to England with West Ham was maybe not my best decision, but I did it because I wanted to return to the Premier League,” he explained.
“The first season was not bad. But the club was exactly the opposite of Manchester City. They had two or three bad moments and they wanted to change the manager.
“They knew I left a lot of things to go to West Ham. I had a contract in China. I changed a lot of things. The aspiration to fight for better started in the first year I was there. They invested more money.
“For different reasons you can have bad moments. But in that moment, as a manager, you must be sure the owners will continue. They did so many things for me to go to West Ham, but the first thing that went wrong, they sacked me. That is not the style of club that I like.
“The West Ham fans are unbelievable – 50,000 every game with the passion for the team. I have no complaints about the fans because they were always with me.
“Looking back, when I finished in China, if I waited a little bit more I could have had another club. But West Ham were keen and convinced me.”
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