Begiristain’s secret to succeeding with Guardiola during Man City’s glory years

Txiki Begiristain said the key to his partnership with Pep Guardiola was to realise that the Manchester City manager has to be seen as “the leader in the building” and “the guy”.

Begiristain, who worked with his former teammate at first Barcelona and then City before leaving the Etihad Stadium this summer , claimed other managers can create the best team in the world but only Guardiola can play the best football.

But he said that his most satisfying achievement in his 13 years at City was the 2014 Premier League title won under Manuel Pellegrini , his first at the club.

Begiristain, who has stood down and been replaced by Hugo Viana , was Barcelona’s director of football when Guardiola was appointed in 2008 and then filled the same role at City in a time when they won seven Premier Leagues, a domestic treble in 2019 and a treble that included their first Champions League four years later.

open image in gallery

open image in gallery

The 61-year-old Spaniard reflected on his time and underlined it was important that Guardiola, who joined City in 2016, was seen as the main man at the club.

He explained: “We played together, and we have shared a lot. We then started working together. That helped when I was here and he was available and came here. You have to understand your role and then also you have to understand that he is the guy. He is the leader in the building, and he has to be seen like this.

“You have to help him to stay calm and show him that you are capable with the structures of the club to help him build the best team in the world. Once you have the best team in the world, he is going to make it play the best football in the world – with him you can have both of these. With others, you can have the best team in the world, but you don’t play the best football. You have to have trust and of course, it helped that we are friends, and we played together.”

City brought in Viana from Sporting CP to take over from Begiristain and the Portuguese has been in charge for the summer transfer window, which ended with the club signing Gianluigi Donnarumma .

Begiristain is impressed with his successor, adding: “He has been a top selection. would say that he is quite close to what I feel I am. He is so calm but he is also very decisive. I’ve seen it in the last few months – the criteria he has and the way he sees football. The decisions on players – I think we are in top hands.”

When Begiristain arrived, Roberto Mancini was City manager and had won the Premier League in 2012. The Italian was sacked the following year and Pellegrini was hired from Malaga and Begiristain drew particular pleasure from the Chilean’s success in his debut season.

“I would say the first Premier League that we won when I was here with Manuel because I came for that,” he added, saying the most nervous he felt was during the away win at Everton in May 2014.