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Txiki Begiristain knows all about pressure, having taken part in European finals for Barcelona and the World Cup for Spain.

But even the amenable former Nou Camp winger must be feeling the heat as he tries to guide City along the hazardous path to the next European level.

The Blues are at the toughest part of their evolution, when they need to attract the very best in order to make the step up.

Unless you are a Barcelona or Real Madrid – a club awash with silverware and with the financial capacity to back it up – it is a tough ask.

The Blues, and Begiristain, are finding that right now in their pursuit of Pogba.

No matter how much money they throw at it, no matter how attractive the proposition of being part of something special at City, and no matter how silver-tongued the football director is, City run into one big obstacle.

That obstacle is dressed up in blue and purple, and offers the chance to play alongside Lionel Messi and win all kinds of cups, as well as a huge salary and the chance to live and work in a sunny, beautiful, vibrant Catalan city.

Txiki’s previous job was to take new recruits to Barca, which is like selling sweets to schoolkids.

The pursuit of Pogba is not dead, even though the news yesterday that officials from his club Juventus and from Barca, had met in a Milan restaurant and made what amounts to a tacit agreement.

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Juve told Barca they will not sell Pogba this summer, when Barca are forbidden from buying players. In return, Barca told Juve they will bid for Pogba next summer.

Of course, things change in football, and the views of Pogba himself are unknown, but it seems to make City outsiders.

Short of bundling the French ace into a sack, slinging him in the back of a Transit van and driving to Manchester, there is little else Txiki could do.

His problem is that City fans are not overwhelmed by his track record.

In his first window, he splashed £95million on Fernandinho, Alvaro Negredo, Stevan Jovetic, Jesus Navas and Martin Demichelis.

Demichelis has been a great signing at £3.5million, Fernandinho has been a reasonable success, the jury is out on Navas, Negredo was a flash in the pan, and Jovetic an injury disaster.

Last summer, with the constraints of financial fair play, he splurged over £40m on Eliaquim Mangala, £12m on Fernando, £4.5m on Willy Caballero and also brought in Frank Lampard and Bacary Sagna on frees.

None of the three players for whom City paid a fee have justified it, as yet.

That is why this is a big summer for Txiki. He needs to deliver good quality, even if that does not mean Pogba.