Manuel Pellegrini has fond memories of the Asia Trophy and feels featuring in this year’s event will benefit his West Ham players. The Hammers are set to take on the manager’s former club Manchester City in Nanjing on Wednesday, with a game against either Newcastle or Wolves to follow three days later.
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It is familiar path to tread for the Chilean, who lifted the trophy with the Citizens six years ago and the 65-year-old tactician feels it is a match in which his players will find out their fitness levels. “We will play two games in a week, which is good for the players,” he said.
“We cannot work a lot with them but the best way is to play games so especially in this Asia Trophy, it is useful because we will play against good teams.” Having won the Asia Trophy in 2013, City went on to claim he Premier League title and Pellegrini remembers it well. “It was an important trophy because it was the start of my first year in Manchester City,” he added. “It was a beautiful game. We also played against an English team (Sunderland) and we won that trophy.”
