Man City's triple £126m January raid has one thing in common as Txiki Begiristain creates new legacy

Txiki Begiristain is going out with a bang.

If Erling Haaland's nine year, £247m contract wasn't enough, then more than £120m of transfer deals in January are a clear sign that the outgoing sporting director is keen to leave his mark on the Manchester City squad.

Just like when Pep Guardiola felt he couldn't walk away in November, Begiristain wants to leave the squad well-placed for the future, not just depart in the summer with an ageing, injury-prone group unable to compete for titles.

Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis have arrived for a combined £63m, while Omar Marmoush will follow them to increase competition in attack for around £63m himself. The two centre-backs are 20 and 19 respectively, while Marmoush is just about to turn 26 so is in the prime of his career.

Haaland is 24 and will be a City player for the next decade. Phil Foden will surely partner him for that time, while City have Josko Gvardiol, Rico Lewis, Jeremy Doku, Savinho, Oscar Bobb, James McAtee and Claudio Echeverri all 22 or under. The future is clear to see.

All of those players are different builds, positions and qualities, but there is one thing that generally links them: a degree of pace. When Gvardiol signed, Begiristain and Guardiola hailed him as a player not just for the next season or two, but for the next decade: they have been thinking about what their squad will look like in ten years time for a while, now emphasised by Haaland's record-breaking contract.

Begiristain talks daily with Guardiola but also with Academy Director Thomas Krucken, and the recent change in approach at the City Football Academy was, in hindsight, a huge hint towards the kind of player City will target in future at senior level.

"We believe the speed of the game