Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak says 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.
“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..”
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 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.
“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.
“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.”
