Manchester City are believed to be in advanced talks to sign Eliaquim Mangala from Porto. The fee is in the region of £32million, according to BBC Sport.
If the deal does go through, Mangala would be City’s fourth signing of the summer and their second from Porto. The 23-year-old was a member of France’s World Cup squad, although he did not feature for Les Bleus in Brazil. Mangala did, though, feature in 32 games for Porto last season. In that time he scored five goals and created one, which are impressive statistics for a defender.
Manchester City will be looking to improve on last season’s Champions League campaign but, due to the financial fair play sanctions from UEFA, Pellegrini may have a problem naming his squad for the competition. City can only name 21 players, five of which must be homegrown. The Premier League also has a homegrown rule that City are struggling to comply with. This states that clubs can name a maximum of 25 players with at least eight being homegrown. As it stands, City currently have 17 players who are not deemed homegrown.
In the Champions League next season we could see the likes of Micah Richards, Derek Boyata and John Guidetti in City’s squad. Signing Mangala could signal the end for one of the other first-team players in order to comply with the homegrown quota. At present, City currently have eight players who are classed as homegrown: Derek Boyata, Gael Clichy, Joe Hart, James Milner, Micah Richards, Jack Rodwell, Scott Sinclair and Richard Wright. However, Sinclair, Richards and Rodwell are transfer targets for other clubs due to their lack of first-team action at the Etihad Stadium last season.
City are restricted to a net spend of £49 million as a result of the financial fair play sanction. Having already spend £12 million on Fernando and £4.4 million on Willy Caballero, Mangala could possibly be City’s last major summer signing.