Mangala On His Way To City?
Manchester City's Manuel Pellegrini eyeing £30m Eliaquim Mangala
MANCHESTER CITY will make a £30million move for Porto central defender Eliaquim Mangala as soon as the transfer window reopens in January.
By Paul Hetherington/Published 8th September 2013
Porto defender Eliaquim Mangala will be approached in a £30 million deal to transfer to Manchester City
New City boss Manuel Pellegrini is planning to steal a march on Chelsea and their bitter rivals across town, Manchester United, who both want Mangala, 22.
The French defender revealed that City made a late approach for him just before Monday’s transfer deadline.
But Porto said that the move was too late for them and would leave them without enough time to source a replacement – although they left the door open for City to return in the new year.
Instead, the Blues signed Atletico Madrid’s Martin Demichelis, 32, for £3.5m – only for the Argentina international to suffer a serious knee ligament injury in a training session three days after arriving at the club.
That is expected to rule him out for six weeks, leaving the Chilean boss with a headache as skipper and centre-back Vincent Kompany is also out with a groin injury – sustained in the first game of the season at home to Newcastle.
Mangala has a £40m buy-out clause in his contract and City are prepared to offer an initial £30m with the rest to follow in add-ons.
Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini is waiting for the new transfer window in January to make a deal for MangalaManchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini is waiting for the new transfer window in January to make a deal for Mangala
City’s plan, though, could also be threatened by Barcelona as well as Chelsea and United. The Spanish champions have been eyeing Mangala as an alternative to their initial target David Luiz, after failing to land Chelsea’s Brazil defender.
United, meanwhile, are to review the club’s scouting operation after a number of failings during the transfer window.
That overhaul is likely to lead to the appointment of Robbie Cooke – who was United boss David Moyes’ chief scout while the Scot was in charge at Everton.
Cooke has left Goodison and has been expected to join United ever since Roberto Martinez took over from Moyes and brought in Kevin Reeves, an ex-Man City player, who was in charge of the Spaniard’s scouting set-up at Wigan.