Txiki double, £234m help, Soriano plan - why Man City are hiring Hugo Viana

For a man tasked with signing players, Txiki Begiristain is most famous for being the man who appointed Pep Guardiola.

When other Barcelona executives - including Ferran Soriano - liked the idea of Jose Mourinho to replace Frank Rijkaard in 2008, Begiristain was adamant that their former player was ready after just one year with the B team. His position as sporting director gave enough weight to his view for Guardiola to be given the job, and so sprung one of the most magnificent teams ever seen in world football.

Sporting are not on that level, but one of Hugo Viana's greatest achievements in six years in his recruitment role was to convince his bosses to spend €10m - a chunky part of their budget - to bring Braga manager Ruben Amorim to their club. It made a young manager the third most expensive manager transfer in history, yet the results have been tremendous.

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Four years have brought four trophies, including two league titles, and progress to the knockout stages of the Champions League for the first time in over a decade. They may have gone further than the last-16 had they not run into Guardiola's Manchester City.

A 5-0 thumping in Lisbon was described as a fake reality by Guardiola, with his team scoring from basically every attack in an exceptionally clinical performance. The result preserved Amorim's reputation as one of the hottest prospects in world football, and after flirting with the Liverpool job last season he took Sporting to another league title and has them top again with a 100 per cent record after eight games, scoring 27 goals and conceding just two.

This progress has been in spite of the healthy profits the club have made in the transfer market. Portugal is still unable to keep hold of its best players when other major European leagues come calling, and Bruno Fernandes, Manuel Ugarte, Pedro Porro, Nuno Mendes, Matheus Nunes and Joao Palhinha have all been sold onto richer clubs for considerable sums - around £234m - over the last five years.

Those transactions saw Viana deal with clubs including City, United, and Paris Saint-Germain and he has also built his reputation through canny replacements. Viktor Gyokeres became Sporting's record signing when he arrived from Coventry for around €20m, and currently has 40 goals in 41 league games; Guardiola also complimented the 'incredible recruitment' in Portugal before the Champions League game.

Viana is also recognised in the industry for his ferocious work ethic, committing fully to all hours to ensure he can achieve the best possible results. Despite this work and reputation, he will walk through the door at the Etihad relatively fresh-faced at 41 after taking his first job less than a year after retiring at 33.

Begiristain gave his best years to Barcelona and then to City but is leaving at 60, having already stayed longer than he was intending to. Viana has the CV to land a job as his successor but also time on his side to spearhead the next phase of City's ambitious project.

In Viana, it is expected that City will not have to think about hiring another director of football for years to come. That, as CEO Ferran Soriano has put it, is a major part of their success.

"How many coaches did we have in the last 10 years? Two - Manuel Pellegrini and Pep Guardiola," he told an audience in 2023. "How many football directors? one - Txiki Begiristian. "That is part of the success, being consistent and resilient and enduring the challenge and not panicking when we lose."