Manuel Pellegrini has been slammed by Darren Bent for his comment about Roberto, as reported by Football Insider.

What did he say?

The former West Ham manager was asked by La Tercera about his sacking from the club, to which he responded: "Unfortunately, we had a major injury, from the goalkeeper (the Polish Fabianski), of four months. And the performance of the second (the Spanish Roberto Jiménez) was not as expected.

He had responsibility in several goals. The team was losing confidence, the results were denied and the owners decided to change."

This comes across as the Chilean pretty much pinning the blame on Roberto for his departure from the London Stadium hot seat, which Bent has taken issue with: “It is harsh. It sounds like sour grapes to me. We all know Roberto cost them goals and points but to say he was one of the main reasons is poor.

“I do not like that at all. If you are a manager you need to take responsibility. You need to look at tactical decisions, team selection and take it on his own shoulders.”

“I do not see that. It is a combination of things that get a manager sacked, not just one. Very harsh on the player. It is wrong.”

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Completely right

This seems very much like Pellegrini taking the easy way out and attempting to avoid the blame for his own shortcomings as West Ham manager.

Roberto, who is currently out on loan at Alaves, definitely has to take some responsibility for the poor run of results that contributed to Pellegrini's sacking.

The Spaniard played eight Premier League matches, failing to record a single win, which involved a series of calamitous errors. The biggest example was his attempt at punching the ball out against Burnley, which led to him putting it into his own net.

However, for Pellegrini to pin the blame on him in this way is ludicrous. It is he and Mario Husillos who brought him into the club, while he also held the power to take him out of the team.

He could have easily changed things earlier than he did, with David Martin coming in and keeping a clean sheet against Chelsea on his debut, but he showed stubbornness and an unwillingness to change instead.

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Aside from that, there were various other reasons why West Ham had their troubles under the Chilean, such as Sebastien Haller being isolated and the team playing at a pedestrian pace.

Therefore, Pellegrini should be looking a bit deeper into things, rather than blaming Roberto, and take some accountability for what happened.

Meanwhile, one man neglected by Pellegrini had a shocker on the weekend.