It has been an exciting week for West Ham United fans after the appointment of Manuel Pellegrini as the club’s new manager.
Pellegrini was appointed as David Moyes’ replacement at West Ham on Tuesday after the club agreed a three-year deal with the Chilean.
Varying reports claimed David Moyes’ hesitancy to accept a deal ended up costing the Scot as Hammers chief David Sullivan decided to go in a different direction.
The 64-year-old has a strong CV and a history of being trusted to reshape clubs looking to spend big and achieve success.
West Ham fans will be hoping that is the case in East London too.
With a major overhaul of the Hammers squad needed and the transfer market growing increasingly expensive it cannot be done on the cheap.
To truly make a significant difference Pellegrini will need between £60-100 million to spend with Hammers co-owner David Gold telling talkSPORT the club will hand him their biggest ever warchest this summer.
And that will mean the East Londoners will take the former Real Madrid and Malaga manager’s career spend past an eye-watering £900 million.
The former Real Madrid and Manchester City boss has overseen the capture of some of the best players around during his career and set certain stars on their way to legendary status with their clubs.
Here we look at Pellegrini’s top 10 signings of his career in terms of their success and if Hammers fans weren’t excited already they will be after seeing this.
1) Cristiano Ronaldo
Pellegrini was in charge of Real when they signed Ronaldo from Manchester United for a then world record – and now bargain – £83 million.
Not much else needs to be said about this one, Ronaldo has gone on to cement his place as Real’s best ever player scoring an astonishing 450 goals in 437 games.
2) Kevin De Bruyne
Another player that has proved a relative bargain is Kevin De Bruyne who Pellegrini rescued from Wolfsburg after the midfielder was discarded by Jose Mourinho.
KDB cost Manchester City a cool £60 million but has been sensational since signing and has gone up another level under Pep Guardiola leading the Blues to an emphatic title win last season.
3) Fernandinho
The Brazilian defensive midfielder is regarded by many as THE key player in Manchester City’s success in recent years.
He cost the Blues £35 million from Shakhtar Donetsk and is the linchpin for everything the team does.
4) Karim Benzema
Forever linked with moves to the Premier League, Pellegrini brought French striker Benzema to Real Madrid for just £30 million at the same time he signed Ronaldo.
Benzema has been a success playing an important role for the team as a target man and hold-up player scoring 127 goals in 276 games.
5) Xabi Alonso
The classy former Liverpool player was signed by Pellegrini for £30 million at Real.
He was a key component in the engine room spraying passes around as Madrid won La Liga, the Champions League and two Copa Del Ray trophies in his time at the club.
6) Santi Carzola
The little Spanish wizard was signed for just £20 million when Pellegrini was at Malaga.
It was a real coup for the club and Carzola was the team’s star player under Pellegrini leading them to fourth in La Liga and Champions League qualification for the first time in their history before being sold to Arsenal.
7) Giuseppe Rossi
Rossi proved a real success story for Pellegrini when he brought him to Villareal for just £8.75 million from Manchester United.
The Italian-American striker scored 54 goals for the Yellow Submarine and in the 2010/11 season he scored 32 goals in 56 appearances in all competitions, helping Villareal to a fourth-place finish in La Liga, scoring 18 goals, which qualified them for the Champions League and also helping them reach the semi-finals of that competition.
8) Isco
Pellegrini snapped the now Real Madrid and Spain star Isco up for just £5 million from Valencia’s B team during his time at Malaga.
He scored 14 goals in 69 appearances and provided lots of assists before being snapped up for nearly £30 million by Real.
9) Alvaro Arbeloa
A name West Ham fans know well, after his recent doomed move to the club which saw him make just three appearances.
But it was a different story when Pellegrini signed him from Liverpool for Real for just £3.5 million. Arbeloa went on to make over 150 appearances and helped Madrid lift every major trophy available to them and two Champions League titles.
10) Diego Forlan
What a signing this was by Pellegrini during his time at Villareal.
Unable to truly establish himself at Manchester United, Pellegrini signed Forlan for just £2.8 million and he went on to become a legend for Villareal scoring 60 goals in the club’s golden spell under the Chilean.
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