Manchester Metropolis are bracing for an enormous change on the finish of the season after it emerged that director of soccer Txiki Begiristain is about to depart the membership subsequent summer time.
The Spaniard has been on the membership since 2012 and has been instrumental to the membership’s success in recent times and was a key determine in bringing his former membership and nation team-mate Pep Guardiola to the membership in 2016.
The 60-year-old’s impending departure comes at a key time for the membership, with uncertainty over Guardiola’s future as he enters the ultimate months of his contract, whereas the listening to into their 115 prices of allegedly breaching monetary guidelines continues. Discovering the fitting successor to Bergiristain, subsequently, can be very important.
Who’s potential new Manchester Metropolis sporting director Hugo Viana?
Quickly after information of Begiristain’s impending departure broke, journalist Fabrizio Romano has reported that Sporting CP director Hugo Viana is the membership’s ‘favorite candidate’ to succeed the previous Barcelona man.
So who’s Viana? And what observe file does he have as a sporting director?
Viana’s title will ring a bell for English followers of a sure age, resulting from his four-year spell at Newcastle United 20 years in the past.
The Magpies spent £8.5million to signal the 19-year-old Viana from Sporting in 2002 following a breakthrough season within the Primeira Liga. Notably, this was the primary main deal that Portuguese tremendous agent Jorge Mendes brokered with an English membership.
Viana was seen as a successor to Gary Pace within the Newcastle midfield, however discovered himself unable to usurp the Wales worldwide and competed with the likes of Kieron Dyer, Jermaine Jenas and Laurent Robert for a spot within the group earlier than he returned to Sporting on mortgage in July 2004.
One other mortgage spell at Valencia got here for the 2005/06 season and he would then signal completely for Los Ches, having made 56 appearances and netting two targets for Newcastle.
Spells at Osasuna and Braga adopted earlier than he completed in his profession within the Center East with Al Ahli and the Al-Wasl. Viana would additionally win 29 Portuguese caps, scoring as soon as.
VIDEO: Why Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea Are The Actual Deal
He would hold up his boots in 2016 and commenced his subsequent profession as a sporting director the next yr with Belenenses, leaving after simply six months, however returned to Sporting as their director of soccer in 2018.
He would shortly make a reputation for himself on the Lisbon membership, who gained their first league title for 19 years in 2021 and regained this title final season.
Key to their success has been Viana’s shrewd work within the switch market. The membership have operated at a €200million revenue over the previous 5 years, because of the big-money gross sales of the likes of Manuel Ugarte, Pedro Porro, Bruno Fernandes and Matheus Nunes.
Sporting’s present squad additionally features a host of gamers who’ve seen their values rise considerably, together with Morten Hjumland, Viktor Gyokeres, Marcus Edwards, Ousmane Diomande and Goncalo Inacio.
Viana’s credentials within the switch market are more likely to be a key cause why he has emerged on the high of Metropolis’s wishlist at what looks like a key time for the membership.
Ought to Viana land the job, he can be the most recent in a collection of former gamers who plied their commerce within the Premier League within the early 2000s to maneuver into comparable positions in current seasons.
Arsenal have had their former midfielder Edu in place since 2022, whereas ex-Blackburn Rovers and Leeds United winger Jason Wilcox landed the technical director function at Manchester United in the summertime and Liverpool appointed former Bournemouth and Portsmouth midfielder Richard Hughes as their sporting director in June.
