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Some people are uncomfortable with the thought of their legacy. When Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini was asked in a news conference last week how he thinks his legacy will be remembered, the reply was blunt. "I am not dying," Pellegrini said. Considering the 62-year-old's parents lived into their 90's, Pellegrini should indeed be with us for quite some time.
But as far as City are concerned, the Chilean's reign ends in effect on Sunday. Pellegrini could have been bowing out in a Champions League final at Milan's iconic San Siro. Instead, he takes his leave in a Premier League game at Swansea's altogether more homely Liberty Stadium. There is something fitting in that. Understated characters like Pellegrini are rarely granted Hollywood endings. A dull draw would suffice for a manager who only requires a draw to secure fourth place.
Yet, while Pellegrini may object to the personalising of the issue, his legacy is nonetheless on the line. It is a contrasting one, of improvement and deterioration, in keeping with a tenure where ambitions, excitement and expenditure have all been high. He inherited a club that had never progressed to the knockout stages of the Champions League and took them to the semifinals; he has put City on an upward curve in continental competition, but that may be halted if he leaves them in fifth place and the Europa League. They have accelerated in Europe, reversed in England, going from 86 points in his debut campaign to just 65 now; from 102 goals scored to, should Swansea keep a clean sheet, a mere 70.
That may still be enough to secure one distinction. City will not get the hat-trick of league titles that Pellegrini's successor, Pep Guardiola, has secured with Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga, but they could finish as the top scorers for a third successive year. It may appear an irrelevant statistic, but it is one that Pellegrini, despite a usual vagueness where numbers are concerned, sees as a validation. He has mentioned it so often it appears he feels trophies are awarded for goals scored; some may suggest that it highlights his attitude toward defending, which has been questionable for parts of his reign.
Their defensive record has declined by the year. Initially, however, Pellegrini produced the sort of high-class attacking football expected of Guardiola. His maiden campaign yielded 156 goals in all competitions, a record for any English club in a season. Arsenal, Tottenham and West Ham were hit for six, Manchester United beaten 7-1 on aggregate over two meetings. They were proclaimed the best team on the planet, albeit by then-Tottenham manager Tim Sherwood, no stranger to hyperbole.
Pellegrini's reign has produced 372 goals. It remains an extraordinary number. Yet so is the £341 million spent in that time, which is why some judgments are damning. City have recouped around £80 million of that and Pellegrini is not responsible for director of football Txiki Begiristain's capacity to pay over the odds, yet any outlay of that magnitude ought to position a club for the future. In City's case, it has not.
The others are not all failures but only Kevin De Bruyne and Fernandinho can be classed as successes. Only they, plus perhaps Raheem Sterling, should be assured of places in Guardiola's plans. Some of those most associated with Pellegrini -- Martin Demichelis, Jesus Navas, Wilfried Bony -- have come to epitomise the malaise at the Etihad Stadium this season, even if the Chilean's final trophy came courtesy of a long-term ally, Willy Caballero, whose otherwise undistinguished City career incorporated two saves in the penalty shootout against Liverpool in the Capital One Cup final.
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But Pellegrini leaves his successor a team too dependent on his predecessor's players. Only De Bruyne and Fernandinho have alleviated the reliance on the core of Joe Hart, Vincent Kompany, Yaya Toure, David Silva and Sergio Aguero. Now the Ivorian seems in terminal decline, while the Spaniard and, particularly, the Belgian have been reduced to bit-part roles by injuries. Only the goalkeeper and the striker should represent certainties for Guardiola.
Guardiola was bequeathed a Champions League-winning team that required few alterations in Munich. He will take over a Champions League semifinal side that requires an extensive rebuild in Manchester. City are in a state of disrepair. It is understandable why there is talk of up to 10 signings. City have aged on Pellegrini's watch: hints of renewal and regeneration have been too few. They have fielded 11 30-somethings this season.
Pellegrini's impact was most beneficial when they were younger. He was the antithesis of the confrontational Roberto Mancini, bringing harmony where there was discord. Now City need Guardiola to be the opposite of Pellegrini, offering impetus, inspiration and new ideas where there seems staleness, slowness and sterility.
There was always the impression that he was second-choice Manuel, the glorified caretaker who was holding the fort until a more glamorous successor became available. Interim regimes never exude a sense of permanence and Pellegrini's has felt more feeble as it has progressed: domestic returns have depreciated since Guardiola's appointment was confirmed on Feb. 1, but the need for direction and strong leadership has become more apparent.
Pellegrini's bland persona, a product of his largely forgettable public pronouncements, is a reason why he is denied credit (and, at times, spared criticism). City have achieved and underachieved on his watch. They have won three trophies, including only their second league title in the past 48 years. They have gone further than ever before in Europe's most prestigious club competition. They have also gone out of the FA Cup to Wigan and Middlesbrough and could finish 18 points behind Leicester this season. They have given the impression they could have won much more.
Pellegrini won his first three Manchester derbies, two finals and matches against Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain, but too few defining games. It underlined the feeling that he is a skilled attacking coach, a figure both his players and a club's powerbrokers like, but does not quite belong in the top bracket of managers, who can turn match-winner when it matters most.
Perhaps, as with everyone, his legacy can only be assessed in the passage of time, but certainly it will be determined in part by whether City finish fifth or whether he helps Guardiola into the Champions League. A man who has often been reluctant to define himself, and who eschewed the chance last week to write the first line of the history of his time at the Etihad Stadium, may simply be remembered as the manager who separated the more charismatic pair of Mancini and Guardiola. It feels a little harsh, but that may be Pellegrini's fate.