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Marcel Desailly believes Jose Mourinho would have won the Premier League with Manuel Pellegrini’s Manchester City squad.

Mourinho clinched the title with two games to spare earlier this month having led from start to finish.

Defending champions City, however, disappointed with just four wins in 15 matches in all competitions during January and April to end their season.

Pellegrini’s men currently look set to finish second ahead of Arsenal. But Desailly believes the Special One could have inspired much more from the Citizens’ squad this year.

The World Cup-winning Frenchman said: “I do believe that the crucial mistakes that Pellegrini has made, Mourinho would not have made them.

“Why? Because it is very simple. First, you secure your defensive block. Second, instead of Pellegrini dealing with the talent - trying to make everybody comfortable according to their skills and their capacities - you focus on the collective unit.

“The talent is there at City, from Fernandinho, Fernando, Yaya Toure. I’ve enjoyed watching City. But when you look at it Pellegrini could have been much harder on his squad.

“They have lacked collective discipline. He has a lot of great individual players, but he needed to build more collectively.”

(Image: Alex Livesey)

Pellegrini’s performance this season is up for review after the club’s final game on Sunday at home to Southampton. Desailly believes he should keep his job.

He fears, however, that the Chilean - knocked out of the Champions League in the last 16 for the second year running - will again come up wanting in that competition.

The former central defender, who lifted the Champions League with Milan and Marseille, added: “Pellegrini is a good coach for the Premier League. Why not?

"City have the speed and the type of players, like Silva and Aguero, to open teams up. But for the Champions League it is more complicated. You have to be much more clever in the way that you organise your team.

"Today, Pellegrini is not there.”

Mourinho, meanwhile, is in line for the Manager of the Year award.

Chelsea's season in pictures:

Desailly, who turned down the chance to remain in the Chelsea squad when Mourinho arrived in 2004, said: “He asked me to stay when he came, but I knew that I would have been on the bench and I wanted to go somewhere and play.

“But Mourinho is the kind of coach that I like - calm, professional, does the job. A leader.”

Last week, Mourinho claimed the summer transfer window would be “like Wall Street collapsing” with Manchester United set to spend big again to try to reclaim the title.

Desailly believes, however, that Chelsea are set to keep the Red Devils at arms length yet again, because Mourinho already has the most complete squad in the Premier League.

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He said: “Van Gaal will have made a list of three players in every position: first, second and third choices. It would then be for the management to go out and buy them.

“But Mourinho already has all the first choices he wanted. It means he is covered for all of the tactical set-ups that he wants throughout the season whether it is in the Champions League or the Premier League.

“Van Gaal, maybe he has had second or third choices. Angel Di Maria may have broken the [British] transfer record, but was he Van Gaal’s first choice? The opportunity was there, Real Madrid wanted to sell and United took advantage, but was he Van Gaal’s first choice? We will never know.

"This summer, United know that they will have to try and find all the first choices for Van Gaal.”

* BARCLAYS and its ambassador Desailly gave young Chelsea fan Rachel Key, a Spirit of the Game Hero, the opportunity to present the Barclays Premier League trophy to her club on Sunday.

Former Blues legend Desailly surprised Rachel with the news when he arrived at her home in south west London this week.

Rachel - whose middle name is Chelsea - said: “I thought it was some kind of wind-up when Marcel Desailly turned up at my door with the Premier League trophy and said I was going to be giving it to the Chelsea team on the last day of the season – it’s just unbelievable.

“Things have really changed for me since joining the Barclays Premier League Works scheme and I’m grateful for all the opportunities it has given me and of course this is the icing on the cake. I’m a massive Chelsea fan and I can’t wait to hand the trophy over to the team on Sunday.”

Watch Rachel’s story below - or visit the Barclays Football page on Facebook.

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* Barclays and their ambassador Marcel Desailly are delighted to have given young Chelsea fan, and Spirit of the Game Hero Rachel Key, the opportunity to present the Barclays Premier League trophy to Chelsea this Sunday. To watch Rachel’s story search Barclays Football on Facebook.