Incoming Manchester City official left ‘surprised’ by media leaks around Etihad Stadium arrival | OneFootball

Manchester City’s incoming Director of Football, Hugo Viana was reportedly left ‘surprised’ by media leaks around his pending arrival at the Etihad Stadium.

The Premier League champions confirmed earlier this month that those within the club had reached an agreement with Sporting CP over the services of their Director of Football to replace Txiki Begiristain full-time from the end of the ongoing season.

Begiristain has been Manchester City’s most successful Director of Football with his work spanning across a 12-year period and his signings having been responsible for the finest period in the club’s history.

Having originally planned to depart Manchester City, or at least step back from day-to-day duties, at the age of 55, Begiristain extended his stay until his 60th year such was his enjoyment at working on the club’s project and alongside Pep Guardiola.

But one of Begiristain’s final tasks, albeit with plenty of work still to do, was to hunt for the best-possible replacement to step into his position from the end of next season, and oversee the next phase of the club’s development with or without Pep Guardiola.

According to the information of iPaper’s Mark Douglas, while Hugo Viana was officially announced as the successor to Manchester City’s Director of Football Txiki Begiristain over the weekend, the move had been in the offing for “months” before.

It is further revealed that having kept the news and talks with the Premier League champions under wraps, the Portuguese officials was left ‘somewhat surprised’ at the leaks at the end of last week.

Whilst Viana is reportedly ‘excited’ at the prospect of joining Manchester City, all parties are sensitive to accusations that his focus in Lisbon will be affected, with Viana wanting to dodge any accusations of conflicts of interest in the upcoming winter transfer window.

Sporting CP and Manchester City will go head-to-head in the league phase of the UEFA Champions League in November, in what will be the first meeting between the two clubs since their concluded discussions over the future of Hugo Viana.

Speaking during a press conference following the conclusion of international football this week, Sporting manager Ruben Amorim has insisted that Viana will not be present or allowed into his side’s dressing room to prevent ‘conflicts’.

The 39-year-old said on Thursday, “[Hugo] Viana, during the game against Manchester City in the Champions League, won’t be available to enter the dressing room. I’m going to leave him out, to avoid conflicts. Otherwise, everything will stay the same until the end of the season.”