Roberto Mancini says the addition of Txiki Begiristain does not point to the imminent arrival of Pep Guardiola at at Manchester City.
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Begiristain joined City as director of football, the same position he recently left at Barcelona, with his arrival following that of another former Barca man in Ferran Soriano - the club's chief executive.
With Guardiola out of a job since leaving the Catalan side last season, the rumours are growing that he will replace Mancini as Eastlands boss.
But the former Fiorentina, Lazio and Inter Milan tactician, who guided City to a Premier League crown last season, says he is not concerned with the speculation while also insisting he will retain control of who the club signs.
He said: "If people write that Txiki is here and maybe next year Guardiola will arrive or another manager, this is not my problem. I'm here, I want to continue to work well because I think we are ready to improve and build a stronger team.
"I am very happy. (Guardiola) has a lot of experience with a top club like Barca. If we did well in the last two years, I think we can do better in the future."
He added: "I want to decide which players we take, this is normal for every manager. I worked with Brian (Marwood) for three years, he was sporting director, I think Txiki will do the same job.
"I have my job and Txiki will have his job. I don't want to go to talk with other teams to buy players, this is not my job. Like every sporting director, he will talk with me before buying players."
Turning his attentions to the weekend's encounter against West Ham, Mancini added: "We need to think only about West Ham because it will be a tough game, a very physical game and if we don't play very strong it will be difficult.
"Andy Carroll causes a lot of problems for every team because he's a strong player and usually at home it's very difficult to mark him. We need to play very strong as a team.
"I don't think we are strong like last year but we are working hard for this. There are a lot of teams that are weaker defensively at the moment. If I don't make a mistake, we have one of the best defences in the Premier League."
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