By NEIL CUSTIS
ROBERTO MANCINI has won his power battle with Brian Marwood.
Former Barcelona coach Txiki Beguiristain has brought in by Manchester City to work directly with manager Mancini over player recruitment.
Marwood has been moved from his role as Football Administrator to become the Managing Director of City’s Academy.
Beguiristain takes the role of Director of Football — the job he did at Barca with City’s new Chief Executive Ferran Soriano.
He said: “I am very pleased to have been offered such an exciting opportunity.
“The progress at City is plain for all to see and I am honoured to have been asked to contribute to its future success.”
But the Barcelona connection does not mean there is any extra pressure on Mancini with ex-Nou Camp boss Pep Guardiola waiting in the wings.
Mancini has long been frustrated with Marwood’s work in the transfer market.
And his annoyance grew this summer as a number of marquee signings including Robin van Persie and Eden Hazard slipped through City’s fingers.
The Italian publicly pointed the finger at Marwood for those failures.
