Manchester City director of football Txiki Begiristain – the architect of the club’s dominance over English football – is set to leave at the end of the season, posing fresh questions about the future of manager Pep Guardiola.
Begiristain has been at the Etihad for 13 years, a period in which City have won 21 trophies, and his exit will be viewed as the club’s first steps into a new era.
i understands the club’s succession planning has been going on for some time, with a new director of football based in Europe close to agreeing to take over.
It has been reported that Begiristain’s departure has been in the works for some time while a long handover period is expected in order to minimise disruption to the club.
Given the City Football Group’s preference for appointing from within – and the group’s alignment on philiosophy – Girona’s highly-rated Quique Carcel must rate as one of the favourites to succeed Begiristain.
But his departure will leave a sizeable void at the Etihad, along with fresh questions about the future of Guardiola, who is yet to give the club an answer on his future.
His current deal expires at the end of the season but City are desperate to convince him to stay on for at least another year.
Begiristain was the man who convinced Guardiola to join City, having shown faith in him by handing him the Barcelona job in 2008.
The pair have had a close bond ever since and Guardiola memorably admitted that if Begiristain had been at Chelsea instead, he probably would have accepted an offer from them such is his personal loyalty.
Eight years ago, Guardiola admitted: “Txiki is the key to all of this.
“When nobody else would take a risk on me, when maybe 3 per cent of the people at Barca believed in me, he was the one who insisted on my appointment to the first team.
“None of this would have been possible without him.”
His hit rate on transfers has been similarly impressive, with Begiristain understood to have been the key man in identifying and then convincing stars like Rodri, Kevin de Bruyne, Bernardo Silva and John Stones to sign for City. They have been cornerstones of the team that won the Champions League and back-to-back titles.
It has been a seismic week for City, with their battle with the Premier League intensifying after a summary verdict of their tribunal over Associated Party Transactions (APT) published on Monday.
The club claimed victory and then followed up by emailing the other 19 clubs accusing the Premier League of misleading them in their own statement summarising the verdict.
City also face 130 charges relating to Financial Fair Play breaches, with the case into its third week and expected to be resolved some time in the first quarter of 2025 with potentially huge ramifications for the club.
But those off-the-field machinations are not understood to have prompted Begiristain to depart.
Indeed this was no snap decision, with the Spaniard keen to step away from day-to-day club operations and take a sabbatical.
Whether Guardiola decides to follow him out of the exit door remains to be seen but given their dominance in recent years, it poses the first serious on-the-field questions for the club after a period of unprecedented success.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/QfJUBmh
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