Pep Guardiola was Manchester City's dream ticket. On Feb. 1, 2016, a club of the highest ambitions, funded by the oil riches of Abu Dhabi, had their man. The Catalan genius would take over in July.
Txiki Begiristain, a sporting director with whom Guardiola had enjoyed almost three decades of association at Barcelona, had been in Manchester since 2012, laying hugely costly groundwork for Guardiola's arrival.
City were the biggest spenders in European football in the summer of 2016. Around £174 million was spent in the summer of 2016 on seven first-team players, making a total of £450m since Begiristain's arrival, yet a coach who previously collected six league titles in just seven seasons now faces the severest test of his career.