Manchester City: Ferran And Txiki speak

They are the guys many Manchester City fans have heard of, but very few have heard from. During player ‘signing’ photos you may notice Txiki next to that player with a big grin on his face. The ex Barcelona duo were brought in, long before Guardiola, to revamp the club both on, and off, the pitch.

Their jobs are done out of the spotlight, and away from the cameras for the most part. Pep may mention them on occasion, but essentially they are behind the scenes. Txiki joined us in October 2012, Ferran a month earlier, and I think their work is now also starting to show through.

Of course, with seasons success, comes criticism. The ever-present talk of City ‘buying’ the title has raised its ugly head once more. It’s an argument which we have all heard on many occasions, and quite frankly, it’s absurd.

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Over the course of the Premier League history, you can point to many ‘record breaking’ transfers and net money spent and no success. You only have to look across the road to our rivals, who have spent crazy on getting Nemanja Matic, Lukaku and Lindelöf this season alone, for a combined transfer fee of €164 million.

And that doesn’t include Paul Pogba, Mkhitaryan and Eric Bailly for €185 million the previous season. With Micky moving to the Emirates just over a year later! It is a point made by Txiki Begristain, who pointed out that none of the top ten biggest signings actually play for Manchester City.

In fact Soriano pointed out that the majority of the players signed by City are now worth more money than when they were signed. In their weekly post (number 218) the CIES Football Observatory had three current Manchester City players in the top five increased value players.

Ederson, Leroy Sane and Gabriel Jesus are all up on their September 2017 valuations. Raheem Sterling makes it a fantastic four for City as he places 16th. Ten English based players get into the top twenty, with Liverpool having three, and Spurs, Leicester and big spending United, with one each.

Moving through the whole report, containing 50 European based footballers, and you’ll find Kyle Walker (31) and Sergio Aguero (32). Just for fairness, Lukaku also makes the list, at number 35.

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While he was in Argentina meeting with business leaders, Ferran was also taking a dig at Mourinho’s crying about money. Stating that the fact business has become interested in investing off field because of the beautiful football we play on it.

It’s hard to argue with the thought that companies want to be associated with the Guardiola brand of football rather than the Boreinho style, but each to their own.