Fabrizio Romano delivers bumper update on Pep Guardiola, Txiki Begiristain, and Hugo Viana at Manchester City | OneFootball

Transfer market insider Fabrizio Romano has delivered updates on various elements of Manchester City’s future, following an eventful last few days.

The reigning Premier League champions are set to bid farewell to long-standing director of football Txiki Begiristain following the conclusion of the ongoing season, after 13 years of services from the former Barcelona man.

As such, that will lead to a search for a capable replacement and one that will likely construct the next phase of Manchester City, even beyond Pep Guardiola’s ongoing tenure, which remains in doubt beyond the end of this campaign.

Alongside links to existing sporting directors at Girona and FC Porto, it appears as though Manchester City’s efforts are being concentrated on Sporting CP’s Hugo Viana, and a wide-ranging update has been delivered on several aspects this week.

With Fabrizio Romano being the first to report interest in Viana, the widely-respected journalist has now issued an update on the chase for the Portuguese official, as well as developments around Pep Guardiola and how it may be impacted by Txiki Begiristain.

According to the information of the ever-reliable Fabrizio Romano, Manchester City are currently in contact with Sporting CP’s director of football, Hugo Viana over the potential to take over the same role at the Etihad Stadium in 2025.

Additionally, it is further made clear that Txiki Begiristain’s imminent exit from the reigning Premier League champions does not have any effect on Pep Guardiola’s own future with Manchester City.

In fact, Romano understands that Manchester City’s board are currently ‘pushing’ to continue with Guardiola as their head coach, even without Txiki Begiristain in charge from a recruitment perspective.

For now, Pep Guardiola is being afforded the maximum amount of time to weigh up his options and particularly during the ongoing international break, in order to come to a conclusion on whether to further extend his stay at the Etihad Stadium.

Manchester City fans themselves have already made their feelings visibly clear to the Catalan coach, unveiling a banner at the recent 3-2 home win over Fulham which read, “Pep Guardiola; We Want You To Stay!!!” accompanied by Catalan flags.

The feeling from within Pep Guardiola’s inner circle is that the 54-year-old was left extremely happy by the signal from City fans, and was particularly pleased by the Catalan flags – a gesture he was not made aware of beforehand.