Manchester City working on early arrival of new hierarchy member ahead of 2025 squad rebuild

Premier League champions Manchester City are reportedly working on the early arrival of a new member of the club’s recruitment hierarchy.

Whilst 2025 is expected to mark a new phase for the current Manchester City operation working under Pep Guardiola, it is also set to see major changes higher up within the club’s hierarchy.

Following 12 seasons and overseeing the most successful period in the club’s entire history, it has been confirmed that Txiki Begiristain will step down from his role as Director of Football at the age of 60.

In turn, Begiristain has also played a crucial role in identifying and hiring his successor, with Hugo Viana agreeing to the move and is said to be lining up an arrival ahead of the 2025 summer transfer window.

However, given the work that requires doing on Guardiola’s all-conquering squad given the ongoing struggles across competitions, a new report has detailed a desire to bring Viana in to start work on rebuilding the squad early than agreed.

That is according to the information of TBR Football, who report that Manchester City are now hoping that a deal can be struck with Sporting CP that would see incoming director of football, Hugo Viana arrive at the Etihad Stadium before the end of the ongoing season.

It is explained that with the Premier League champions needing to hit the ground running next summer as they anticipate what is expected to be a ‘squad overhaul, City would ideally like the 41-year-old to arrive ahead of the main market.

However, it is reassured that Manchester City are not pushing for Hugo Viana to come in to the club in January, as that is deemed unrealistic given Sporting Lisbon’s needs of their own, but hope he could arrive soon after.

Pep Guardiola himself has remained relatively reserved when it comes to Hugo Viana and their work together, informing the media in recent weeks, “I’m looking forward to speaking with him this season.”

The City manager continued by highlighting, “But I think he’s in touch with Ferran Soriano, with Txiki [Begiristain] a lot, and hopefully maybe in the next month or weeks we’ll be in touch.”

For now, it remains to be seen whether Hugo Viana will align himself with the current vision put into practice by Begiristain and Guardiola, or whether his outlook on the game will bring in a very different stylistic approach to player recruitment.

Either way, there is significant work to be done, and the feeling in some quarters is that there could be at least six new names arriving into the Manchester City squad across the next two transfer windows, with huge cash reserves available from limited spending in recent markets.