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PEDRO OBIANG came in from the cold this season after Manuel Pellegrini turned up the heat on his West Ham flops.
Pellegrini was known as ‘This Charming Man’ at Manchester City for an air of quiet calm which at times saw him labelled a soft touch.
But Obiang claims the Chilean ditched that persona to turn things around after a nightmare start at West Ham.
And he reckons it could be City who get burned as a result when Pellegrini’s old club visit the London Stadium today.
West Ham spent £100m on new signings in the summer, only to lose their first four games of the Premier League season.
Two things happened next – Pellegrini lost it with his players in training, and Obiang was restored to the starting line-up.
West Ham then beat Everton and Manchester United and drew with Chelsea. While their form has dipped since, midfielder Obiang reckons they are on the right track.
He said: “The results at the beginning, no-one expected. But we learned a good lesson from that. The manager made some changes.
“The manager started to shout at us and then we started to work in a different way. Then we started to win, working well. When you have players like us you don’t need to shout much. He told us every day that the club had spent a lot of money and we had to do better.
“He told us the club is trying to do something big, that they brought him in and some really good players too, and that now they want to go to another level.”
For a while it did not look like Obiang would be around to see it. Fearing for his place as the signings kept coming in over the summer, he asked to leave.
There was interest from Italy, with his former club Sampdoria among several potential suitors. But Pellegrini talked him out of it.
Obiang, 26, said: “It was a difficult situation. I was talking every day with the manager. He was telling me every day, ‘You have to stay, we have a good project’.
“I told him I knew that but I wasn’t sure there would be space for me in it because they were bringing in so many players.
“He said big clubs always need two players in each position.
“He told me, ‘If you don’t want to be here, I will help you to leave. But I prefer you to stay because I see you in training and the guys know you. Everybody is happy with you. There is no reason to go’.”
Obiang stayed but then found himself on the bench for the club’s first four games.
He has started in all three of their wins since then and helped to toughen up a previously soft-looking midfield.
But he admits it was touch and go for a while. “Did I make the right decision? I really don’t know,” he said.
“The first month was tough. I was a little bit angry with him.
“I told him that I had stayed to play and I wasn’t playing. It was really difficult. But things have changed.
“I looked at our squad and the quality is good. For me to be inside that group is really nice.”
From being frozen out, Obiang is a key player again and faces City in the hope the club’s recent run of just one win in their last five games is only a blip.
Since Pep Guardiola took over at City, they have beaten West Ham five times, scoring 18 goals and conceding three. Obiang has been there for them all.
He said: “They have created a great team but it is not a perfect machine. I don’t know a club who wins every game, every year, against everybody.
“Even Barcelona or Juventus have problems sometimes and some smaller clubs have a possibility to win. This time it can be us. You have to fight.
“These games are difficult for everybody. Sometimes it’s important to be lucky. You have to be lucky and make the most of your chances. Then you have more chance to win.”
Obiang, who once studied for a political science degree, hopes West Ham have learned their lesson from those defeats.
But he is now helping others to learn as part of the club’s Players’ Project, where his role is to help mentor academy youngsters and apprentices.
Obiang said: “I think we can all learn from each other and learn about the sacrifices we all have to make in life. I hope we can make a difference.”
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THE West Ham Players’ Project is a £10m Community Scheme aimed at motivating, educating and inspiring local people, with first-team players helping to deliver life-changing experiences. MANUEL PELLEGRINI says he is surprised by Manchester City’s lightning start to the season – but will fight fire with fire against them today.
Pellegrini’s West Ham face his former club with City top of the table after an unbeaten start to their title defence.
He said: “I am a little bit surprised. It is not so normal that this happens in the Premier League. But we will have to see what happens in the future.
“Against them the first thing is you must not make mistakes because they have players who will take advantage.
“They also have had difficult games this season. Lyon, Wolves, Liverpool and Tottenham played good games against them.
“If you give those players time and space, you will concede a lot. There are different ways to do it. I don’t think all those teams played in the same way against them.
“We are trying to continue thinking and playing as a big team. Of course, we consider who we are playing.
Orders
“But we are not going to play the game just to have a draw and not to concede too many goals. We are going to try to use the game as a good test.”
Pellegrini, who won three major trophies at the Etihad, will face City for the first time since he was axed in 2016 to make way for Pep Guardiola.
He is under orders to take West Ham to the next level after replacing David Moyes at the London Stadium and being backed by a £100m summer transfer spend.
Today’s game will show how far his side have come, and he added: “We will try to continue improving. To invest money is not the only way you must continue to grow. A lot of teams have invested money.
“We are trying to do a lot of work to improve the club. City and other clubs are in a very good moment with very good players. Every team needs to reduce the distance with them.
“I think Guardiola is doing a very good job and it will be a special game against them.
‘‘Managers move on. But the most important thing is every club I left, people have a good relationship with me. So I will always love that club because I had three very important years of my life there.”