Eliaquim Mangala

[Neville Kneville]

After the villa game we need another rock next to kompany nasty needs more time sign him up.

Ye let's replace a youngster with another youngster who'd cost us 30m+ great idea. Nastasic has 1 bad game and people want him replaced.

It amazes me the grief given to a youngster who as 1 bad game.

Like I said about Joe Hart when he was going through a rocky patch it's time like these that players need our support.

It's not one bad game it's quite a few & a whole host of average ones, with very few of real quality, just people vastly exaggerating, turning run of the mill defending & competent passing into Bobby Moore meets Beckenbauer.

Exceptional talent normally looks like exceptional talent. Nastasic so far is...not that bad. Nothing more.

City fans have done the same with him as the rags have with Phil 'Duncan Edwards' Jones. Both are average in their careers so far.

Don't know if Mangela is the answer but if we ever get a truly exceptional kid playing centre back in our first team, he will still make mistakes (kids do), but in between, seen in the flesh, he will look absolutely exceptional. Nastasic doesn't & isn't.

 

[carlos tevez is a blue]

Watching Porto just now, he's been far better than his buddy. He reminds me of a young Pepe.

 

[LoveCity]

He reminds me of a young Pepe.

He is a class act. City apparently think he's overpriced at £35m which is what Porto want (release clause)... and I guess he is, but like with Rio Ferdinand, if you're guaranteed 10 years of service from a really high quality defender, the investment might be worth it.

Otamendi is also a very good defender, but was very rash tonight.

 

[El Mago]

He reminds me of a young Pepe.

He is a class act. City apparently think he's overpriced at £35m which is what Porto want (release clause)... and I guess he is, but like with Rio Ferdinand, if you're guaranteed 10 years of service from a really high quality defender, the investment might be worth it.

Otamendi is also a very good defender, but was very rash tonight.

Since the take over we haven't bought a world class defender.

It is strange that our best two defenders are Kompany and Zabaleta who were bought before the take over

 

[SrilankanBlue]

He reminds me of a young Pepe.

He is a class act. City apparently think he's overpriced at £35m which is what Porto want (release clause)... and I guess he is, but like with Rio Ferdinand, if you're guaranteed 10 years of service from a really high quality defender, the investment might be worth it.

Otamendi is also a very good defender, but was very rash tonight.

Since the take over we haven't bought a world class defender.

It is strange that our best two defenders are Kompany and Zabaleta who were bought before the take over

Savic?

 

[EL APACHE TEVEZ]

He reminds me of a young Pepe.

He is a class act. City apparently think he's overpriced at £35m which is what Porto want (release clause)... and I guess he is, but like with Rio Ferdinand, if you're guaranteed 10 years of service from a really high quality defender, the investment might be worth it.

Otamendi is also a very good defender, but was very rash tonight.

Ferdinand???

 

[Braggster]

He reminds me of a young Pepe.

He is a class act. City apparently think he's overpriced at £35m which is what Porto want (release clause)... and I guess he is, but like with Rio Ferdinand, if you're guaranteed 10 years of service from a really high quality defender, the investment might be worth it.

Otamendi is also a very good defender, but was very rash tonight.

I don't know what the constraints are around our spending and how much money we have available, but if we do have the money, and if he is as good as people claim (I've not watched him so am not qualified to opine), then I agree that in the long term the £35m would be an excellent investment. I guess that's quite a few "ifs" though!

 

[supercity88]

Money is not always the answer though. Kompany and Zabaleta were relatively cheap and have turned out to be excellent purchases given time. I agree that Nastasic has been over hyped by City fans, but for his age he has a lot of experience, has played in big games and has been excellent. He will go through bad spells though and like other players of his age he needs experience around him to learn from. Demichelis and Kompany can offer some but it is whether we spend a massive amount of money to buy someone who will essentially replace Nastasic in most games. Having a settled back 4 with an understanding is important and a consistent centre back pairing even more so. It is not somewhere that we will look to rotate. Given time and experience and Nastasic is certainly capable of becoming a very highly rated player. If we offload Lescott it is whether we look for a left sided centre half to push Nasty on rather than one for £30m to replace him. Kompany and Demichelis have the right side sewn up, both are technically good, both are experienced. Nasty is good on the ball, he is good in the tackle but he still has a lot to learn about dominating an attacker physically the way someone like Pepe or Vidic or Kompany do. Get in their heads and push them about. This is where Lescott is good, but it is clear Pellegrini wants players that can pass the ball out from the back, Lescott struggles with that side of things. We do need another CB to cover the left side, it is whether the club feel necessary to invest heavily or not. So far they have preferred to use the money in an attacking sense. At left back they most definitely need to spend, the left side of our defence is extremely suspect and it seems to be from this side we make mistakes and concede goals.

 

[LoveCity]

He reminds me of a young Pepe.

He is a class act. City apparently think he's overpriced at £35m which is what Porto want (release clause)... and I guess he is, but like with Rio Ferdinand, if you're guaranteed 10 years of service from a really high quality defender, the investment might be worth it.

Otamendi is also a very good defender, but was very rash tonight.

Ferdinand???

Yes. United bought Ferdinand for what was a final book value of £34million in 2002, a crazy fee for the time, but he then went on to be one of the league's best defenders for many years and helped them win trophies. So it was a crazy transfer fee but amortized (is that the right word?) over time, money well invested by them.

 

[Ray78]

I would be happy with either of Mangala or Otamendi but if our scouting team was up to scratch then we could of got Mangala for €6.5 million.