Manchester City equalled the British transfer record at the beginning of this month when they signed Enzo Fernandez for £125m from Chelsea. That came just months after they made Elliot Anderson the most expensive British player of all time, splashing £116m on him. That record has since been broken by Chelsea, who bought Morgan Rogers for £117m.
In comparison, Eliaquim Mangala's price tag of £42m looks modest, especially considering City have spent more on the likes of Josko Gvardiol and Ruben Dias since that deal. But at the time, this was a big deal. Mangala joined from Porto and became the most expensive defender in British transfer history.
79 Appearances and a Free Transfer Exit
Incredibly, despite the money spent, Mangala would go on to make just 79 appearances for the Blues. He was loaned to Valencia just two years after his record-breaking transfer and would leave permanently in 2019, on a free transfer.
But what happened to Mangala? Well, after two unconvincing seasons at the Etihad Stadium, pressure was growing on the centre-back. In April 2016, Manuel Pellegrini publicly backed the defender. "If you have the statistics then you will see every time Mangala plays then we win," he insisted.
"In a few games this season he has made mistakes, which is very awful to concede, but if you review his overall performances, he is a very good player. He is a very good defender. I don't think the price made a difference for him. He is a very young player, he is adapting to a difficult league in the Premier League."
Guardiola's Honest Assessment
Pellegrini's thoughts meant little though. City had already lined up Pep Guardiola and the Catalonian had already decided Mangala was not for him.
"Not disappointment. Why? Because when he arrived I was told I should leave, that I should find another solution," Mangala told Get French Football News when asked if he was disappointed by the manner of his City exit.
"There was an offer at Inter Milan, but financially it didn't work. At the end of the transfer window, I was still [at City]. At that point, the coach came up to me and spoke very sincerely to me. He said: 'There wasn't any solution, and you're here. You have a very specific profile, which in terms of my playing style, isn't what I am looking for.'"
"'But you're here and we have four central defenders. We're going to work together, and you'll be ready to play every match and we have lots of matches, and so you'll have playing time because there are characteristics that you possess and that I need, that others don't have. You're a very good player, it's just that regarding the profile I'm looking for, for my style of play, you aren't what I'm looking for.'"
"That was it. I don't have any problem with that. I can't be disappointed because the coach knows very what he wants. It's not about my qualities, it's about my profile."
Premier League Struggles and Coaching Career
Mangala joined Valencia again that summer and, in February 2020, he spoke to The Athletic about why things did not work out for him in the Premier League. "When I signed, I was hoping to be part of a big team, win titles and play with quality players," he said. "City were the Premier League champions and I found a league that is very tough. It was totally different to what I knew before. It was very intense."
"Everyone is strong and quick, even the little players. It's challenges, it's second balls. At that time, it was a bit less tactical than it is now. There are more foreign managers now, but then it was very kick and rush, very in the channels. Some teams played from the free kicks and all this stuff."
"The strategy was to jump on you. It was quite hard. That for me was the big fight and, finally, I did come to enjoy it."
But one player he did not have fond recollections of was Shane Long. "Shane Long. If you see him, you feel like he is quite small but he is so fast. He jumps, he runs, he presses and you feel like 'what?'" Mangala admitted.
"You don't see this kind of striker in Spain or Portugal, running, jumping on you, constantly trying to unsettle and beat you. That's what makes the Premier League totally different."
Mangala would eventually leave Valencia on a free in 2021. He would go on to spend half a season at Saint Etienne in 2022, and two years at Portuguese club Estoril before finishing his career this year at Bolivian top tier club Club Deportivo Oriente Petrolero.
Nowadays, you can find Mangala back at Saint Etienne where he is the club's assistant to Scottish head coach Ian Cathro. The defender was not always destined for coaching, but in 2022 he admitted that working with Guardiola, albeit briefly, opened his eyes to that path.
"After playing under him (Pep), I had more desire to become a manager," he told Get French Football News. "It isn't necessarily his playing style, because that can change, but his approach. Why do we play like that? It's everything. The way I received it really opened my eyes."
