The £32 million Manchester City spent on 23-year-old Eliaquim Mangala this summer saw many eyebrows raised. It’s a huge sum of money to spend on a defender, particularly one whose experience has largely been gained in Portugal’s Primeira Liga; hardly one of Europe’s most difficult leagues.
After much deliberation and a failed January bid, Mangala was viewed by the City manager, Manuel Pellegrini, and the club’s Director of Football, Txiki Begiristain, as a player worthy of the huge investment, yet others remained unconvinced.
His inactivity in France’s World Cup squad, where he was behind the likes of Liverpool’s Mamadou Sakho, Arsenal’s Laurent Koscielny and Real Madrid youngster Raphael Varane, led to questions about his credentials. For £32 million surely you’d expect a defender capable of keeping Sakho out of the international picture?
After all, the Premier League is an unforgiving league, where time on the ball is of the essence and mistakes are punished with ruthless efficiency. Defenders have to be accomplished or else risk being undone. Could Mangala, a player with little experience when compared to others who could have been brought in for less money, prove to be a misguided acquisition?His lack of match fitness after his protracted transfer, which was complicated due to ownership issues, meant his first-team debut was delayed significantly. When it did come, though, it could hardly have been more impressive.
The speed he demonstrated was remarkable, as was his strength and ability to dominate strikers aerially, rendering Chelsea's Diego Costa, who had been in fine form in the run up to the match, null and void.
It was one of the most comprehensive and impressive debuts a City player has managed in many years.
It left everyone connected to the club excited at the prospect of watching him develop. For three seasons, Vincent Kompany, the club’s best centre-back and on-field leader, had been partnered with different players, and it had proven somewhat unsettling, particularly given the Belgian’s own injury record. Martin Demichelis has proven to be a wonderful player—a bargain at £3.5 million—but at 33, it was clear in the summer a long-term option was needed.
His dominant performance against Chelsea was seen by many as the start of something special, and a comfortable follow-up match against Sheffield Wednesday in the League Cup followed, before some shaky displays began to see the tide of opinion alter.
An own goal and a conceded penalty following an unnecessary challenge on Abel Hernandez away at Hull saw him ridiculed, and nervousness began to creep into his game. His rap sheet has continued to grow, with a shaky display at Upton Park in the defeat to West Ham, a red card away at Southampton for a somewhat needless challenge and a reckless kick into the back of Samuel Eto’o in the recent match with Everton lucky not to be punished with a red card.
However, in among the poor decision-making, which has been jumped on by pundits and oppositions fans alike, there have been signs of a genuinely talented player.
Source http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2299364-32-million-fee-for-eliaquim-mangala-will-prove-to-be-good-value-for-man-city
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