Txiki Begiristain, Manchester City's director of football, has met the agent of Manuel Pellegrini, the Málaga coach who is a favoured option to replace Roberto Mancini should the Italian leave the club.
Begiristain had lunch with Jesús Martínez in Madrid on Monday but it is understood that, as the agent also represents numerous players, the meeting may have been of a more general nature.
Mancini's future at City is the balance, with the hierarchy waiting for the end of the season to assess his long-term future at the club. With the FA Cup final at Wembley on 11 May against Wigan Athletic to come, Mancini could claim the third major trophy of his three full seasons at City to follow last season's Premier League title and the Cup triumph in 2011.
If this occurred and the club finished second as they should – City lead Chelsea by six points with only four matches left – then Mancini's hand would be considerably strengthened.
However, even in this scenario he will have to travel to Abu Dhabi immediately after the season ends for discussions with Begiristain, Ferran Soriano, the chief executive, and the chairman, Khaldoon al-Mubarak, regarding his position.
Although Mancini still holds considerable power at the club, it is Begiristain and Soriano who have begun driving City's long-term strategy, with the pair behind the potential introduction of a new 4-3-3 playing formation for next season, and they are also working closely together on bolstering the squad this summer.
Mancini has consistently stated that City should not repeat the mistakes of last year when the club failed to land four of his five first choices, which included Robin van Persie and Eden Hazard.
Last week he said: "From now to 30 August we [must] work well and not like last year. Maybe we can do better because for two years we worked well, we had our targets and we got our targets. It's not important only to work well on the pitch, it's important you start to work well. It's important not to make a mistake on new players. We need to do everything well."
Chelsea have expressed an interest in Pellegrini potentially replacing Rafael Benítez this summer, with the Chilean suggesting he may leave Málaga in the close season, due to uncertainty at the club, who fell behind in paying his salary
