Gabriel Jesus has arrived, but Manchester City still have much to do to make good on his exceptional talent

The Brazilian is one of the world's best young players but he must receive support as he looks to make an impact

Manchester City chief Txiki Begiristain shakes hands with new signing Gabriel Jesus (PA)

"There's a film in my head. A film with happy ending.”

Gabriel Jesus, bidding farewell to Palmeiras in emotive fashion, isn’t lacking for a sweet turn of phrase and, fortunately for Manchester City, he isn’t short of a Hollywood finish either.

This month, the latest act in the Brazilian forward’s motion picture begins, a scene set against the inevitably grey skies of Manchester but burning bright with the promise of one of South America’s finest young prospects.

And for all the transfer talk this January – and there will be plenty of it – City will end the month as the title contender that has strengthened their bid most convincingly when Jesus pulls on a sky blue shirt for the first time.

Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal, assuming you still believe the Gunners to be in the race, are unlikely to do significant business. Liverpool might make a move, but are not expected to shatter the earth.

But City, who admittedly have a ten-point gap to make up on Antonio Conte’s league leaders from Stamford Bridge, will be adding a £27million striker to their squad, Brazil’s number 9, a star of the new generation.

Not yet out of his teens, Gabriel Jesus is already a household name in South America and was the subject of a year-long tug-of-war among Europe’s biggest clubs. The Manchester club’s project, effusively sold to him by leading executives from the City Football Group, seduced the talented teen but he enters a Premier League season at halfway, with his club's new coach and philosophy under the microscope.

Pep Guardiola suggested City might be out of the title race after the humiliation at Everton but the feeling within the training ground is very different. He did not rip his players to shreds in the aftermath of that heavy defeat, instead praising them, and training has been intense but not fraught with the anger you might expect from Guardiola's tense on-screen match-ups with the media.

Sergio Aguero's absence has affected City, and more recently his future with the club has been called into question. However, Ferran Soriano and Txiki Begiristain - the most powerful people in the club’s football operations - have long insisted that Aguero will remain in Manchester until 2018 before returning to boyhood club Independiente. Those plans, as of Friday morning, had not changed.

With Gabriel Jesus’ arrival and a spotlight being shone by the ever-diligent Ian Herbert on how Man City are no longer as committed to helping their new signings embed, the next challenge begins for this club. The liaison team that has been shrunk by Guardiola’s request was originally set up at the end of the last decade after some worrying incidents involving new arrivals.

Many of City’s signings during that period were staying at the same city centre hotel in Manchester, with Robinho, Vincent Kompany, Pablo Zabaleta, Benjani and Jo among the guests.

One week in the autumn of 2008, City’s Brazilian forward Jo, who had signed from CSKA Moscow, travelled with the squad for a Uefa Cup fixture on a trip to Cyprus that would last nearly all week.

Some days after his departure, hotel cleaning staff knocked on the door of his room and received no response, so they entered and were alarmed to discover Jo’s partner sobbing uncontrollably on the bed, a wad of cash on the desk and a floor littered with biscuit wrappers and empty drinks cans. Unable to speak English, she had been too scared to leave the room and had not eaten a proper meal since her partner had flown with the team.

Room service immediately ordered her sausages and mash and assigned a Portuguese-speaking member of staff to check on her periodically and be available for her every need, but the conclusion was inescapable – player welfare wasn’t being properly taken care of.

Robinho was among those who struggled to settle in Manchester (Getty Images)

With Mario Balotelli’s well-publicised wild days, City improved their liaison services but the recent streamlining is far from ideal with a teenage superstar arriving in town.

Gabriel Jesus can make an impact for Manchester City and has the talent to challenge Sergio Aguero as first-choice centre-forward but they must ensure he has the smoothest possible transition from life in Sao Paulo to the north-west of England.

A change in climate and culture that many players have struggled with, Gabriel Jesus will no doubt have some assistance in settling from fellow Lusophones Fernando and Fernandinho. But these are players that are 10 and 12 years older than him, more fatherly figures than social companions, and City must be careful with whom he surrounds himself if they are to get the best out of their new investment on the field.

Gabriel Jesus has all the talent, now City must get the best out of him (Getty Images)

Robinho, who never really adapted, spoke of “the distractions” of life in Manchester. “There is a cold like you have never felt,” he also complained.

But if City can look after Gabriel Jesus and he fulfils his potential in Manchester then they will have a global superstar that could not just make an impact in years to come but right now.

Whether that film in his head has a happy ending isn’t solely down to his talent, it’s now down to how Manchester City help a 19-year-old assimilate to a new environment before blooding him at the highest level.