Bernardo Silva becomes first Manchester City player to comment on new Director of Football Hugo Viana | OneFootball

Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva has become the first player within the squad to comment on the imminent arrival of a new Director of Football at the Etihad Stadium.

It had been confirmed earlier in the week that long-standing chief Txiki Begiristain would be bringing an end to his 12-year stay at the Etihad Stadium at the end of the ongoing season, having pushed back his exit by five years.

There is a feeling in various quarters that the 60-year-old had originally intended to leave the club upon turning 55, but such was his enjoyment at working on the City project and alongside Pep Guardiola that he decide to prolong his work.

Begiristain has ensured that he remained proactive when it came to searching for a potential replacement and, alongside work from the wider club, came to an agreement with Sporting CP’s Hugo Viana to join the organisation from 2025.

The arrival of the Portuguese director to the Etihad Stadium may come as good news to a lot of supporters who have watched his fine work at Sporting, but particularly Viana’s fellow countrymen already at Manchester City.

As relayed by Portuguese newspaper Record, and translated by Sport Witness, Bernardo Silva has insisted that Hugo Viana being Portuguese can only be a ‘positive’ for both himself and the wider Portuguese contingent at the Etihad Stadium.

With that being said, the versatile playmaker has insisted that despite sharing a home nation with the Sporting CP Director of Football, he is yet to know the former Newcastle United man ‘personally’.

Bernardo Silva said during the international break, “I don’t know him personally, but being Portuguese it will be positive for us.”

Other names that will likely be excited to work alongside Viana at the Etihad Stadium will include Portugal internationals Ruben Dias and Matheus Nunes, with the latter being a player who knows the Sporting director very well.

The former Wolverhampton Wanderers midfielder was recruited by Viana and Sporting on a five-and-a-half-year contract for a €500,000 fee for half of his economic rights, and a €45 million buyout clause.

Three years later and Nunes would leave Sporting for the aforementioned release clause, with Viana negotiating with Wolves that saw the now-26-year-old sign a five-year contract with the Premier League club and secure the Portuguese giants a new club-record transfer fee.