Pellegrini ends disappointing Hebei China Fortune spell to move to West Ham Premier League England beckons for Chilean

Shortly after leaving Manchester City, where he won the Premier League once and League Cup twice, Manuel Pellegrini began a two-year stint at Hebei China Fortune that has not gone to plan.

Nonetheless, West Ham United are destined to swoop for the 64-year-old and install him at London Stadium with an announcement expected on Sunday after he agreed to leave Hebei by mutual consent.

Looking back on Pellegrini's spell in China, it is hard to find exactly where his success lay given that he initially took over an ailing team in August 2016 and failed to turn around their campaign, winning five points in seven games as they ended up seventh.

Expecting more, the Langfang outfit invested 70 million euros on five players, including the 20m euro outlay on attacker Zhang Chengdong, who became the country's most expensive footballer in the process.

After a strong campaign, Hebei dropped to fourth on the final day of the season courtesy of a 5-4 defeat at Shandong Luneng. Their AFC Champions League hopes were then ended by the shock Chinese Cup triumph of Shanghai Shenhua, grabbing the final qualification spot as Wu Jingui's unfancied side had finished down in the table.

That blow seems to have carried over into 2018 as Hebei sit mid-table despite signing Javier Mascherano, meaning that Pellegrini's promotion back to the Premier League will hardly be met with great dissatisfaction by his former fans.