How Man City can steal march on Arsenal to catch Liverpool FC

Pep Guardiola is rightly hailed for the way he has conquered and changed world football, but critical to his success at two of his three clubs has been sporting director Txiki Begiristain. Having anointed him as Barcelona coach when Jose Mourinho was the more established pick, Begiristain has also been at Guardiola's side for every second of his time at Manchester City after convincing him to move to England.

In words that are as relevant about the club's difficulties now as they have been about the immense successes that have been enjoyed, Guardiola spoke in 2019 about the importance of the recruitment team.

“I think the most important department in the club is the scouting department," he said. "Much more than managers and players. When they choose well 80 per cent of the job is done.

“When we don’t choose well, or they don’t choose the players we need for the way we want to play or the quality they have, you spend a lot of time and energy and sometimes you don’t have enough time, with the number of fixtures, to improve.”

Recruitment has been the theme of the season. Where the departure of manager Jurgen Klopp was seen as a blow to Liverpool, the subsequent return of Michael Edwards as the club's chief of football has allowed them to catapult past their rivals.

It was Edwards, sporting director Richard Hughes and Liverpool's recruitment team who ignored the sentimental idea of Xabi Alonso to replace Klopp and picked a coach from the Dutch league in Arne Slot, and the coach has been able to breathe new life into signings that had not fully taken off.

Meanwhile, City have belatedly realised their squad wasn't big enough for the demands of the season after an injury crisis wrecked their hopes of success, and Arsenal are