Txiki Begiristain

Txiki Begiristain to extend Man City influence before Hugo Viana change

13 Oct 2024, 14:00 by Simon Bajkowski · Manchester Evening News

There are celebrations in the works at Manchester City.

"We look forward to paying tribute to Txiki’s outstanding contribution to Manchester City at the end of the season," read the end of a club statement detailing one of their biggest changes. After 13 years, sporting director Txiki Begiristain will leave to be replaced by Sporting's Hugo Viana in 2025.

While Viana will be with Sporting until the end of the Portuguese winter window, he will then start to pick up duties at City to ease him into the role. There will be a period of transition with Begiristain to ensure that the change is as smooth as it possibly can be.

However grand the leaving party is next summer, those around the club are not expecting any let-up from Begiristain before then. This season is another for him to work, up to and including the Club World Cup that ends in the middle of July, rather than a winding down.

That means that City's outgoing sporting director will be responsible for yet more change before he leaves. Even if Viana comes in, it will be Begiristain who is nailing his reputation to big decisions including Guardiola's future and a possible new manager, and the end of Kevin De Bruyne's current contract.

The club are saying goodbye to one of their best operators, but before he goes he will have shaped whether there will be other huge departures this summer. When the final chapter on Guardiola and De Bruyne ends and their successors or talked about, it will be Begiristain - for better or worse - whose legacy is impacted by what happens over the next eight months.

Begiristain is not a man who enjoys the spotlight but is good company with all who meet him and is a man who does not shirk responsibility. Even as he plans to depart, he will not be hanging the burden of some of the biggest decisions facing the club on his successor.