Manchester City are reportedly set to replace their departing director of football, Txiki Begiristain, with the man who signed Arsenal-linked Viktor Gyokeres for Portuguese giants Sporting CP.
Begiristain, 60, is ready to leave City at the end of this season, but a successor will reputedly start work early next year as part of a six-month handover period. According to reports, an agreement is seemingly already in place with his heir, who’s already well-respected and in European football.
Hugo Viana fits that bill, and Fabrizio Romano claims the Sporting director of football is City’s favoured candidate to succeed Begiristain in the top job. That potential appointment could be bad news for Arsenal and any hopes of signing Gyokeres over upcoming transfer windows due to his existing working relationship with the striker.
Viana has spent the last six years at Sporting, and he jetted across to England last year as part of the Lisbon club’s negotiations to sign Gyokeres from the Championship side Coventry City. After the striker’s first season in Portugal, the director reiterated this summer that “we are happy with him” after an “excellent” debut campaign.
However, he also acknowledged then that “football is dynamic” and “an offer may or may not come” for the striker. It appears that a bid did not arrive, or at least not any sufficient enough to sanction a sale, but Viana could consider making one himself should he move to City.
After selling Julian Alvarez to Atletico Madrid this summer and not recruiting a replacement, the reigning Premier League champions are without a recognised back-up to Erling Haaland. It’s not, as such, beyond the realms to see them reinvesting that club-record £82million fee agreed to receive from the Spanish giants by, perhaps, activating the £84million release clause in Gyokeres’ contract – especially if City-bound Viana has anything to do with it.
