Manchester City’s sporting director Txiki Begiristain has been involved in a plethora of transfer deals during his time at the club.
Having been at the Etihad Stadium since October 2012, the 60-year-old has helped the club land deals for players such as Erling Haaland, Rodri, Kevin De Bruyne and Jack Grealish among many others.
Begiristain will have also played a big part in seeing his former Barcelona teammate Pep Guardiola get appointed at City back in 2016.
Now though, one former player who knows all about what it takes to play in the Premier League and for Barcelona has shared some details on how he almost became one of Begiristain’s signings in his early years at City.
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Cesc Fabregas says he had talks with City over 2014 transfer move
When asked about how his 2014 move from Barcelona to Chelsea came about in a recent episode of The Rest Is Football, Cesc Fabregas had this to say about the other clubs in the frame to sign him at the time.
He said: “Before going to the World Cup, I sat down on the same day with three clubs, with Man United, Manchester City and Chelsea, at the house of Darren Dein, my agent, one after the other.
“I spoke to David Moyes on the phone and then I met Txiki Begiristain and then straight after I met Jose Mourinho.
“And by talking, analysing, you also get perceptions, you get feelings about who is who and what they want from you.
“Jose, he convinced me. He brought me to Chelsea, 100 per cent. He was the person that [convinced me].
“I had doubts, of course, for my past at Arsenal. Can I be the same player? Can I be happy again playing football? Can I be important? And he made me feel that there was no other way. It was Chelsea or Chelsea
“Even Manchester City, obviously had an amazing project. It was doing a great team, even with [David] Silva, who I always had a great connection [with].”
Fabregas could have been a good signing for City
After making 303 appearances for Arsenal, Fabregas joined Barcelona in 2011 where he spent three years before joining Chelsea in the summer of 2014 as previously mentioned.
During his time at the West London club, the Spaniard scored 22 goals, delivered 57 assists and won multiple trophies across 198 appearances.
Given how effective he proved himself to be at Chelsea in terms of regularly supplying goal contributions, it’d be safe to assume that Fabregas would have been a good signing for City had Begiristain been able to convince him to join the club back in 2014.
