Report: West Ham pick Pellegrini over Newcastle’s Benitez as he’s cheaper

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The reason that Manuel Pellegrini has become West Ham’s preferred choice as manager over Newcastle’s Rafa Benitez is because of money.

West Ham United are on the verge of naming Manuel Pellegrini as their new manager, with the Telegraph reporting the 64-year-old will arrive at the club today (May 21) to sign a contract.

Pellegrini has told current side Hebei China Fortune that he is leaving and will fly to London to make a return to Premier League management just two years after leaving Manchester City.

The Chilean will put pen to paper on a three-year deal with the Hammers, replacing David Moyes in the dugout with the Scot having left last week when his short term contract expired.

This is a turn of events from only four days ago when the Guardian reported that Newcastle United boss Rafa Benitez was West Ham’s first choice to succeed Moyes.

The East Londoners have long held an interest in Benitez and the Spaniard was also top of the list to take over in 2015, before going to Real Madrid and Slaven Bilic was hired instead.

Yet it seems that the Hammers changed their mind on the 58-year-old because it would cost £6m in compensation to release him from his current deal with Newcastle – which has a year left to run – and with the former Chelsea and Liverpool chief wanting to also bring his own backroom staff with him to the London Stadium, it was deemed too expensive.

So while Pellegrini has an impressive CV which includes league titles in three different countries, including England, Benitez was the preferred choice but was not pursued further in order to save money.