This thread is getting silly. The club is owned by a fabulously wealthy business man/group who bought a club which, he found, had ex-managers in every broom cupboard, had no HR department, so didn't know which staff were in work and which were on holiday. It had been so well run that many fans missed most of the first half of the match while they bought their ticket. The new board set about running the club on sound business lines and making it efficient and effective. New personnel were brought in, and many of them became instantly unpopular with some posters.
Mr Begiristain was appointed director of football. Old habits die hard and many supporters love to speculate on the "agenda" new appointments bring to the club. This is usually seen in terms of conflict and intrigue and so Messrs Begiristain and Soriano must be part of some Spanish plot to chuck out the Italian and bring in another Spaniard, or at least an Iberian. A pity there are no Borgias left. But then they're Italian. But City must surely be run on the old lines of plot and intrigue, rivalry and enmity. And the Daily Mail has just told us that the "agenda" of increasing his own power is what drives Mr Begiristain on! In fact, he behaves just like a power mad teacher.
Now for those who have trouble the role of a director of football is actually to "direct", in the sense of giving a direction, to the football of the club. In our case a club which is investing £150 million in training facilities. The declared aim of which is so that the club can produce, at minimal cost, its own "stars of the future". How bizarre then that the "director of football" wants to know what's going on in these facilities. Presumably it would be unsatisfactory if young players were told to run round one of the pitches 25 times and then to "have a game"! City want to get young kids and take them through to shine in the PL, but this won't happen without careful planning and top quality coaching. So you bet Begiristain wants reports on exactly what the coaches are up to. And he will ant to ensure "progression" - it would make no sense if the 21 year olds were doing ecactly the same as the 15 year olds! So what is done and how does it make the lads better than they were?
The point is that this is not an attempt to squeeze Mancini out. We know that Soriano and Begiristain were ruthless at Barcelona when they felt change was necessary and so it may well be possible that there will be change, of some kind, in this summer, next summer, whenever. But the reports of Mr Begiristain's activities as reported in the Mail tell us only about the efforts made to ensure that the new facilities are used to get "the kids" to play the way the club wants and helps to take them from 15 year olds to those playing at top PL standard.
So, don't expect the Etihad to be littered with corpses dripping blood from the stab wounds to their backs any time soon.
