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New Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini has claimed he was close to taking over at Liverpool FC three years ago and that he also had the chance to take charge of City in 2007.

Pellegrini might already have been at City had former owner Thaksin Shinawatra lured him from Villarreal in 2007 before turning to Sven-Goran Eriksson. And that was not 59-year-old Pellegrini’s only brush with the Premier League, with Liverpool also apparently interested three years ago.

In 2010, after Rafael Benitez left Anfield, Pellegrini was available following his dismissal by Real Madrid but Malaga proved his next destination.

The Chilean said: “I had twice chances to arrive here before. One was to Manchester City but with the other owners.

“Liverpool, I was very near, after Real Madrid, to arrive at Liverpool. But for different things, it was not the moment. Now it is the right moment with the right club.”

Pellegrini, 59, left Malaga to succeed Roberto Mancini, who was sacked in May just a year after guiding the club to the Premier League title.