![\"FARO,](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/0_GettyImages-1557087273.jpg\")
Hugo Viana<\/p>\nPep Guardiola has spoken a lot with Hugo Viana in the first week that the new Manchester City sporting director has been in the buildingHugo Viana<\/p>\n
Pep Guardiola has told Hugo Viana to give him the blunt truth about the Manchester City<\/a> squad before the summer transfer window. The City boss has spent the season defending his players but does not want the Blues to fall behind when they should be looking to the future.<\/p>\n Hugo Viana arrives at the Etihad<\/a> in one of the most important roles at one of the most important junctions in years. In the summer he will replace long-serving sporting director and key Guardiola ally Txiki Begiristain<\/a>, who is leaving after 12 years in Manchester.<\/p>\n Begiristain has often been seen as the yin to Guardiola’s yang, calming the manager over their morning coffees to give the coach a new perspective and energy for the tasks ahead. Having backed his friend to succeed in England, he has been a large part of why Guardiola has stayed so long.<\/p>\n However much City’s coach has enjoyed their time together, he has been encouraged by Viana’s first week in the building working full-time for the Blues.<\/p>\n “With Txiki, we were together playing in Barcelona as almost teenagers. We\u2019ve shared a life,” he said. “No two relations are the same.<\/p>\n “What I\u2019ve experienced in a short time (with Viana) is that it will be so easy to communicate together. So easy. He\u2019s a perfect replacement.<\/p>\n “The vision, the way we talk, the composure like Txiki \u2013 no stress, not like me \u2013 and the balance is calm. Hopefully he can express himself.”<\/p>\n Viana may have only just started permanently but he met with Begiristain in the January window and his influence could be seen in the signing of young Brazilian defender Vitor Reis from Palmeiras. Reis has only had a brief introduction to Premier League<\/a> football, although he is seen as a player for years to come.<\/p>\n Guardiola wants Viana to be fresh eyes for a squad that has been accused of going stale, asking him to speak up and be vocal about the changes that need to be made if City are to get back to the top.<\/p>\n “I\u2019ve asked him to forget about what we have done,” he said. “We need your vision. You don\u2019t come here to just follow what we\u2019ve done in the past.<\/p>\n “Let\u2019s talk, what you see about the team over many months watching us, what we can do better. Opinions back and forth and then the best opinions.<\/p>\n “I don\u2019t want a club that it\u2019s (just about) the manager all the time. We don\u2019t work like that, I rely a lot on my sporting directors.<\/p>\n “They give me the players they believe are the best for the team. We have to lift them and get the best from them.”<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Here at The Manchester Evening News, we’re dedicated to bringing you the best Manchester City coverage and analysis.<\/p>\n Make sure you don’t miss out on the latest City news by joining our free WhatsApp group. You can get the club’s breaking news and best analysis sent straight to your phone by clicking here<\/a> to subscribe.<\/p>\n You can also subscribe to our free newsletter service. Click here<\/a> to be sent all the day’s biggest stories.<\/p>\n And, finally, if you’d rather listen to our expert analysis then make sure to check out our Talking City podcast. Our shows are available on all podcast platforms, including Spotify<\/a> and Apple Podcasts<\/a>, and you can also watch along on YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pep Guardiola has spoken a lot with Hugo Viana in the first week that the new Manchester City…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,2399,2465,1036,1037,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-15983","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-hugo-viana","12":"tag-manchester","13":"tag-manchester-city-fc","14":"tag-pep-guardiola","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114329640405722407","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}